Percy Jackson Early Start
by Datmofo
Summary: The Greatest hero of Olympus had a rough life. See this altered timeline where things may or may not be as pleasant as before. Relationships aren't a No-go But it wont be percabeth when it happens. Im not a good writer beware.
1. Chapter 1

I really hate Mondays. Everything just seems to go wrong on them, you know? Hi, I'm Percy Jackson, and I live with my mom and stepfather, in a small apartment in Manhattan, New York. Right now, my stepfather, Smelly Gabe, was out with his buddies, probably smoking or something else nasty. I'm in the kitchen with my mom, eating cookies and talking about old dead people. My mom has been explaining Greek heroes to me and its pretty cool. Perseus, Heracles, and Jason are just a few.

"They were all children of gods, such as Zeus, the king of the gods, and… Poseidon, king of the sea" She said that last name softly, and it instantly made me like him. My mom is the absolute best, and if she likes someone then i do too. Except Smelly Gabe, I'll always not like him.

"What about Jason? Wasn't he a god's kid too" i had asked because she hadnt mentioned much of him before, unlike her strong explanation of Heracles and Perseus, who were very different, but atleast I understood that Heracles was strong, but not nice, and Perseus, who was a great hero and was happy in the end. Which was about all he could process being only eight years old.

"Percy they are called demigods, and no, he wasn't one. That's what ruined him in the end, he disrespected and ruined a woman's life by breaking a marriage vow, and had no defense against Hera when she came after him for it." She was scowling when she said it, and softly barked out to me that if i ever did that to a woman she'd never give me a cookie again, which I think is fair so i quickly nodded.

I heard a loud spark noise near my ear, and it made me just about jump out of my pants but i didn't make a fuss about it cause i wanted to look strong in front of my mom. However she did notice something was off about me, and her eyebrows got closer together.

"Percy, baby.. I wanna give you something." She reached under the counter we were sitting at, and pulled out a gray knife.  
"Percy this is silver, i want you to be careful with it, but please hold onto it. It'll keep you safe when I can't if you use it right." It was shiny, and i quickly stretched my hand out and grabbed it. She didn't let go though, she looked at me very seriously and whispered "Please."

I had a feeling she was talking about multiple things but I nodded and complied and asked "Please".

As she let go she went in for a hug. I gladly took it, and then it ended. But something was off. The floor was… buzzing. Charged? I wasn't really sure. I know when things have energy they buzz a lot. That's why my moms says I'm always moving, which i can understand, I am a total handful.

My mom noticed the buzzing too and I looked at her, and I was scared. She was looking confused but then she went kind of still as the "buzzing" got louder. She then started talking really fast and very seriously.

"Percy you need to get out of here. Very fast, you are a demigod son of Poseidon, god of the seas!" She was freaking out and i was so confused. "What? I thought those were a myth, what's happening mom!" I was so confused and i was gripping the knife really hard. My legs started moving and i was running towards my mom but she shoved me away. "PERCY LIVE!" The buzzing reached its peak with me being in the edge of the room.

All of a sudden a massive lightning strike went through the building.

And through my mom.

I was screaming and crying and gripping the knife so hard my hands were bruising. The building was breaking around me and i was trapped by the way the ceiling fell. i could feel the crashing of the building around me, and i was trapped.

I don't know how long i was down there. But eventually i got up from the ball i was in and i cut through the thin wall with my knife and climbed out to see.. Wreckage.

There wasn't anything i was feeling, my mom was dead and my home was gone and i was apparently part god. Which should be cool but right now it wasn't important. I bolted from the scene, but only after grabbing the cash from the cash jars i could scavenge from the wreckage. I didn't know how much i had grabbed but it seemed to be a few hundred dollars. I was running towards the border between Manhattan and Long Island.

I saw a taxi, and since I've been raised in New York all my life, despite my age was able to call it over as for me to get in. I shoved the money in his face and said "Montauk."

Montauk is a place me and my mom go t-.. Went to on vacations, it's where she met my father, who since i now know is Poseidon, makes since. Actually it explains a lot of her excuses as to why he's never around, and why I always liked water.

He was grumbling but accepted the money, and we were on our way. I was super sleepy, and my last thoughts before I fell asleep were how pretty the surroundings were and how i felt so cold.

I was floating through recent events. I could hear angry screeching and and mumbles that slowly turned into actual words. I could hear yelling about my mother and how she didn't deserve it by two really really tall guys, which were Zeus and Poseidon, which I don't know how I knew but I did. My dad was yelling to a smug looking Zeus. I lost focus of them but then I say my dad sitting on the beach at montauk looking glum but calm. Way calmer than he was talking to my- Uncle? I guess Zeus fits that. My dad was holding and seemed to be waiting on something. The scene faded to black and I slept mostly peacefully with flashes of mortal horror about my mom inbetween.

"KID. GET. YOUR. A-BUTT. OUT. OF. MY. CAR" I woke awake to his very annoyed voice, as if he'd been trying to wake me up for awhile. Once I realized everything that had just happened was real and I was really in Montauk quickly got out. The second I was out he sped away right the way we came. I turned and there he was. Just sitting there. Just like i saw him in my dream.

I walked over to him and sat next to him. And then i had a question.

"Are you really-"

"Yes"

"Is she really-"

".. Yes, I'm sorry son"

"It's ok, at least i still have a dad" I glanced over at him to see his reaction, and was satisfied to see he smiled a little.

He got up, and with him I did too.

"I can't stay for long, but a few things must be done before I go." He grimaced but hurried along with what he was saying. If I was more serious i think we'd look the same.

"You, being a demigod, will have to face monsters. Since you're my son, you get more monsters attracted to your "demigod scent" then normal. It sucks but that is life. There is a demigod camp that you can go to, but I can't let you go quite yet. In a few years yes, you may, but not yet. You need to train your weapon skills and your water abilities." For once in my life I only needed to be told once to understand it fully. This was serious.

"I suggest seeking out naiads, which are river nymphs, for them to help you learn your water abilities. And for your knife…" He reached down and put two fingers on the knife I had in my hands, put on a concentrated face, and then relaxed.

"Your knife is now a lot more durable, and has the ability to fully harm monsters no problem." I stared at my knife. I felt more connected to it than ever.

"One last thing before I go," He put out his hand and when i looked at it, it held a large book in it that wasn't there before. "Read up on this in your free time, it holds all the knowledge you need surface level. Don't lose it, because if i send you a message itll appear as a letter in this book probably." He sounded very tired about it all. That's understandable, I was sad and tired too.

"I've made a bank account in your name. It has money for supplies you could need. Don't abuse it but it is a very large amount, you get that percy?" I was dead on my feet but i was definitely listening.

"I've gotta go now, I'll have to go deal with my wife." I perked up at that. I remember my mom mentioning her. She didn't ever say anything bad about her but now that I think about it she is prolly very angry about me. So I wanna make up for that.

"Hey, Dad!" I called out to get his attention as he had begun to walk away, "If amfa-trite(?) ever needs or wants anything from me, I'll do it to help make up for my existence, make sure you tell her that, OK?" I was about to pass out but I saw my father smile sadly, wink, and he was gone when i blinked next. I walked over to the empty cabin that I used to stay in with my mom, got in a bed, and passed out.

 **Hey guys?**

 **Do you guys like this kind of story?**

 **I have lots of ideas and not a lot of time to put them into words. I take suggestions if they're good but i generally have a plan until he gets to the point in which the original story starts. I encourage comments.**

 **BTW I don't really wanna be basic and write percabeth. Personally i prefer perlia but idk what ill do with this story. Im going to avoid making percy op**

 **Ignore grammar errors im not cool enough to have a beta reader**

 **Sorry if its too short or the pacing is too fast im not used to attempting long stories**


	2. Chapter 2

During the past six months, i looked all over Long Island for naiads, but for the life of me I couldn't find one. So, I left. I walked all the way to New Jersey. It was a very hard trek and it took weeks, since monster attacks and the distance I covered.

Empousa and Hellhounds seemed to just loved how I smelled. Which was totally gross, I hadn't showered in days and they wanted to eat something that smelled like rotten food and cow manure, and apparently a salty one at that. Speaking of Hellhounds, I don't see why people hate pitbulls cause these guys are waaay more vicious. Plus they are less cute. They were hulking creatures that wanna eat me, which is usually hard to dissuade them from.

Naiads. I did end up meeting one, and she was very helpful but I couldn't stay with her long.

I had been walking for the past day, not stopping, I was very tired, and somewhat delirious, but i was getting used to these treks and they were getting easier on my body. I had just walked out of a small town in New Jersey that i didn't bother to check the name of, and now he was walking in a forest following a main road which led.. South I think. All of a sudden, i heard a trickling of water and I felt very compelled to go there, and I did. I was walking along to the stirring in my stomach and the sound of water.

I finally saw a somewhat large stream after climbing a small hill. Finally, something was going my way. Water meant rest and Naiads. I called out to the stream but i didn't hear anything, not until i looked into the water and saw her in it and then i heard her voice in my head.

 _Hello lord. I heard you were looking for some help with your abilities._

I wasn't surprised but it was super suspicious that she knew that i needed to figure out my water powers as i had limited luck on my own, usually the water either wouldn't listen or wouldn't listen to what i say.

 _Dryads have seen you travelling and they are total gossips. I occasionally listen in on them, hehe, but anyways, I am Humilis. I can give you a quick run down, but then you have to leave lord, I'm sorry but if you're hear my stream could be in danger, and I'd appreciate it if you'd respect that._

I was surprised at her subtle sass which made me giggle. But yeah she's right.

 _That's fine Humilis, I understand. If we're gonna do this though, don't call me lord. I'm eight and a half. I feel like that's a little young to be a lord, plus lording isn't my style._

 _Ok Percy, now here we go._

We went on for a few hours, and after awhile training with her it clicked in my brain that in those few moments of me trying to control water that i had been mistreating it. I wasn't supposed to control it, I was supposed to work _with_ the water. At least for now me and the water are equals. Which sounds totally weird cause water doesn't even have thumbs but we are.

I remember something my dad said to me in my dream, which would usually be a weird thing to take seriously but hey, weirder things happen. " _You and the Sea are each other's force."_

Which now that I think about it sounds pretty cool, and is also accurate. Either way, it has helped me break new ground. I could get back at anyone who's hurt me or people i care about. I could prevent them from hurting people. And I bet that it'll be alot easier to fight monsters.

Either way, sassy Humilis worked me to the bone, dumped me in her rejuvenating stream, and the process started again. She was kinda scary looking back. But right now, I need to look forward, in particular, towards the big bad dog from hades.

It had tracked me from New Jersey, which is crazy because I already had left there after i couldn't train with Humilis anymore, and I'm now in freaking Virginia, just to get away from this _very big angry dog_ and its pack, yeah thats right, this one had a pack, which I've slowly dwindled down to a few, which are still a ways away if my instincts are anything to say.

It was snarling and drooling-gross and it lunged at me. Time slowed down, which according to my book, was due to my ADHD which gave me a strong senses boost. Annoying, but in this moment it totally saved my butt. As the huge Hellhound came towards me, I flipped my knife to where the blade is away from me, and then I shoved it down to its hilt into the monster's eye, and held it there, making sure to keep its teeth away from my neck. Now I may only be eight, but i have a few things going for me, such as the fact that it was raining, and that since I'm a demigod son of The Big Three, I have the strength of a fit fifteen year old, even though I'm still only eight. These to things saved me. Although it didn't leave me unscratched.

Just because I kept its teeth away, doesn't mean its claws were in the same position. I got raked across the chest, and while it hurt, the rain was healing it and keeping the pain from hitting its max. I held it there for what seemed like a minute but it was probably only a few seconds, or I'd be raked more. After that, its head melted into golden sand, and with it the rest of his body.

I was barely able to stand up, as my wounds weren't completely healed, but I made it, just in time to see the last three hounds from the pack bounding towards me. They were within ten yards of me, and I instantly knew that there was only one way. Time was going slow, and I then used the last of my strength to pull all the rainwater towards me, I threw my knife through one, I made a sharp tendril of the little water I was able to gather in my low energy state, and waited until they were on me, in which I then threw my hands in a chopping motion, and the tendril cut through both and they exploded into sand, and with their deaths I passed out, numb.

I was there again. In that room, gripping my knife so hard bruises were forming on my hands, and I couldn't move. I watched as a lightning bolt shot through the building and through my mom, and I still just watched on as my mother was _murdered in front of me._ The bolt of lightning ended, and my vision turned blank. Images and voices were being burned into my skull of my mother talking down to me, her corpse was being animated just to torture my mind. In between those scenes I'm getting images of some punk girl, who was looking pretty roughed up, running with a small girl and and older male. I also saw images of my father, as well as images of a… Bright(?) very handsome man flirting with some girl in a restaurant booth. And right before it switched back to my mental torture, the man, who I could now identify as Apollo, turned his head and looked directly into my eyes, and made me feel warm and helped me get through the next torture session.

" _PERCY LIVE!"_ I woke to the sound of a almost window shattering roar, as well as my mother's last request ringing in my ears, and together they make my hearing currently useless as it is very loudly ringing to the point to where I want to tear my ears out.

After a second of adjustment I noticed a lizard thing, which I think is a drakon, but it looks very small compared to the images I'd seen making me think it's probably very young, staring me down and looking like its about to charge at me. I went for my knife that was supposed to be at my side. And then i realized, it was stuck in a tree five yards away.

It's either go for the knife, run, and or attack the drakon with water. But I was drained, and the raining is done, so the puddles are gonna be my best bet, which aren't exactly the best. I am not losing that knife. So I do the dumb thing, and I charge at the knife.

The second I make my choice, the drakon starts charging and spitting at me, which is definitely not going to feel good if it hits me, as where it hits me will no longer exist after being hit. I ran as fast as I could, which seemed to be just barely fast enough to make it to the knife, where using my energy I got from my, uh, nap, I grabbed the knife, pulled it out while simultaneously running up its trunk and then flipping off it, avoiding the drakon, who crashed into the tree, knocking it over, which stunned it. It was stunned just in time for me to be able to fall down and drive my knife into the back of its neck, making it screech. My butt landed on its back, still gripping the knife, using it as the only thing keeping my on its back as its running and trying to claw me to death, but it couldn't reach me.

Soon enough it bucked me off, throwing me into a large puddle of water, without my knife in hand. The drakon roared, and charged at me. At this point I'm terrified but I'm dead tired so the fear is nulled. Standing in the large puddle, staring down a drakon mid air coming at me, all I could think about how I was truly powerless against this monster. There was nothing I could do, and I had failed my father before he even needed me. And I had failed my mother. I was going to die.

But then I heard them.

My sweet mother's voice, her last scream,

 _PERCY, LIVE!_

I jumped as high as I could while twisting and flipping mid air, grabbing the knife on the back of the head and pulled it back, violently ripping and slicing through its flesh and spine, all the way from the back of its neck to its tail, ending with its tail being split in half.. My anger induced screaming that I didn't know i was letting out died as the small drakon violently exploded into golden sand.

I dropped to my knees. I was fully spent. Plus my best shirt was ruined by those hellhounds, which sucks. Heh. I couldn't really move because everything hurts and cause fighting a drakon, no matter the size, was tiring as all hell. The space behind my eyes was giving me a massive headache, but I got up, regardless of the lack of energy and pain.

This reminds me of the time i ran around in the park for five hours, the tried to climb a tree but fell because I was so tired. I cut myself on the way down and my mother worried for me so much. She took me home and gave me snacks and bandaged me up. Her cookies were the best. And her soothing voice, telling me stories about greek heroes. She was the best mom there could have been. I just, can't understand why she married that garbage human, Smelly Gabe.

Speaking of Smelly Gabe, I saw on the news that He is alive and "devastated" that his wife is dead and his son is missing. He has put out a reward for us to be found, which i don't know how he can afford, but he did. So, thanks to him, I can't go in Hotels. Thanks Gabe.

I found a clearing, after about thirty minutes, and I set up camp there. I got supplies from a walmart using my bank account my dad gave me. It wasn't very a good place to camp but there was space. It was lump but regardless I passed out the second I put my head down.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been a year and six months since his lovely visit to Virginia, and getting those massive scars on his chest from the hellhounds. Turns out, when the rain "healed him", it just stopped the bleeding and pain. I figured that out pretty quickly after I woke up from the drakon fight. I had to be very careful, and had to figure out how to make stitches, as I didn't want anything getting in there, and now I realize that was the right call, call i learned about infections only recently. Either way, they healed up ugly, and raised almost enough to see through his shirt but not quite.

He couldn't believe that this was his life. The gods had done little to help me, which sucked. You'd think they'd send down like maybe a gods damned sword and some sagely advice. His father had definitely helped kept him alive, but not allowing him to go to camp sucked, even though I figured out its to keep me out of the eyes of my uncle, Zeus.

He doesn't want Zeus to find him, cause then he'd strike me down just like he did my mother. The bastard. That's the single worst possible reason to hide me from Zeus and it's not my father's fault. Zeus was a paranoid god, I figured out pretty easily by reading up on him. This wasn't his first time killing a mother just because he doesn't like their children.

I've slowly been getting more and more mad at my uncle. But not hades. Hades hasn't hurt me nearly as much, which I appreciate. He probably would attack me more but something seems to keep him off me. Whatever it is i am pretty darn thankful for it.

Anyway, my adventures had taken me all over the country, and to plenty of moments of mortal peril, which is always fun. He'd initially gone south, but soon he went all over the western parts of the country. He'd fought a lot of fights that were way over his head. Although, over the years some of the more repetitive fights had gotten noticeably easier. Hellhounds and Empousa and other monsters on their caliber kind of melted around percy. And not like your ice cream in the summertime, but more like they quickly disappear, and when percy is near its probably violently.

He was kinda tall for his age, just barely capping out at 5'0, which was towering over my body at the beginning of my adventures. I was a lot stronger now. Remember I mentioned being as strong as a fit fifteen year old when i was only eight? Yeah, Being ten and 5'0 definitely makes that strength look alot less impressive. I'm fitter than the average demigod, at least for what I can tell from my book. I could probably outlift a pretty fit twenty five year old no sweat.

I felt a shifting in my bag. That was weird but that usually meant that something appeared in there. I didn't see anything but this probably meant that there was something slipped between the pages of my book.

My book was an actual blessing, and its saved my butt with its information plenty. When i finished the book, or when i thought i did, I realized that the book had more pages than it looks like it does, which is weird but I'd seen weirder things so this was fine. It had myths, histories, and general knowledge about the greek world. It was very useful, and apparently it was written by the goddess Athena. Which i know is my dad's rival but I guess my dad doesn't care either as he's the one that gave the book to me. Either way, I sometimes flip through the book and sometimes I get letters in between the pages. It's the same way this time.

I rustled through my bag for the book, flipped through it for a second, and a letter flew out the bottom expectantly. I picked it up, and saw my father's neat handwriting.

I looked at the cover and saw my name in the most beautiful print. He opened the letter.

 _Percy_

 _As you know, this is your father._

 _I finally think it is time for you to get a sword._

 _A very particular sword._

 _Go to the Mountain of despair in San Francisco, and climb the mountain._

 _Once you meet the hesperides, close to the top, challenge them for a sword called Riptide._

 _Tell them you challenge them in my name._

 _Goodluck son._

 _Poseidon_

A sword? I mean i was just complaining about not getting a sword from the gods. Maybe my dad was tuning in. Or maybe this was planned. Either way it's gonna be good to finally have a sword. The hesperides however will be a definite challenge. They and Ladon guarded the Golden apples. Which sounds boring but they were both very tough.

My father put in the effort for me to get a specific sword, so this must be worth it. But that's irrelevant compared to the fact his father finally has given him some sort of miniquest. And i was definitely not going to fail at this.

Currently i was in a train car on my way to California, and that was definitely coincidental. And lucky. I looked out the window into a barren field, and the sunset was leaving a golden tinge on everything. I looked a little farther out, and noticed a large golden form, of what looked like a large cat. I looked at it, and i swear i made eye contact with it for at least a second. Then it just jumped out of vision and the train passed that area. The Nemean Lion. Huh. Put that on a list of things to look for.

The train booth was loud but It was late and I was tired. So, I let myself go, and i relaxed in my sleep.

I was just about to drift off when I got a piercing pain behind my eyes, and I kept seeing these places and people I hadn't seen before. Nothing i recognized was there, and then three figures came into moderate focus, A tall girl i recognized from a dream, punkish, as well as two others, like the blonde girl and the tall male. The image wavered, and Ms. Punk was gone from the image, and the other two seemed to age. The images faded, and then I heard a deep and cold laugh coming from something akin to a black pit. I felt sucked in. But then the connection broke and I was back in my train booth.

I had broken into a terrible sweat and was breathing very hard, kinda like after running a marathon, which I had done the equivalent of before, and it wasn't pleasant. My heart was racing, but my surroundings seemed normal, so I was calming down. I pulled out my book and started reading it, as that would take my mind off of things.

San Francisco. It was interesting, but I was currently more interested in the mountain. He was about a mile from it, and he was walking there, which is probably for the best. Asking for a taxi and telling them that you "Wanted to go climb the mountain so i can challenge the daughters of atlas for a sword that I still don't know why i want." wouldn't go over without it being weird. As well it'd be a little expensive, and would put a dent in my money supply.

So i made the decision to walk up the mountain, which would suck but i could make it to the top within a few hours.

And that's what I did. I did grab a bite to eat first, which was like a golden refill cause I made it up the mountain earlier than expected, only three hours. The journey up was mostly bland but I definitely started feeling my gut tighten just a little the closer I got to the top. There weren't any animals, like no birds or anything, which was a little weird but it makes since as this was literally the Mountain of Despair.

The mist, the force of nature protecting mortals from seeing the godly world, got thicker and thicker as i went up, it was almost touchable.

I finally reached where they were, and I could see them, just… standing there, like they were waiting for me. They called out as I approached.

"Perseus Jackson, why have you entered our domain?" Sister Number One said with a glint in her eyes, she, like the rest of them, stared straight through me.

I wasn't fully ready for how they were looking at me, but I powered through my uneasiness.

"I am here to challenge you for the sword, Riptide, in the name of my dad Poseidon. He tells me to challenge you for it, and here I am." I told them, trying not to sound stuck up. But their gaze persisted. I felt a stirring in the atmosphere.

"We.. understand. You must get past each one of us in combat, and then you may take the sword. This will be a battle to the death, son of Poseidon, are you prepared." Sister Number One said.

"We won't give that up sword easily, Jackson." Sister two spit.

"Prepare for combat, son of the sea god." The third sister said as she unsheathed her sword.

The fight was actually insane. Four daughters of atlas, and even if they were weaker than you would think, this was by far the hardest fight I've ever been in, and in my young life I'd fought some bad dogs, vampires with wonky legs, and a baby drakon. All with water, a knife, and a whole lot of willpower. Now I'm down to willpower and a knife, as I'm fighting daughters of the sea, we cancel eachother out in combat. Four swords versus a knife, and I kind of held my own.

Kind of. I'm being out matched, out weaponed, and a third of my strengths were made almost irrelevant. I do have one advantage. By some lucky streak, I had the instincts required to predict their sword moves.

They were attacking me from all sides, hacking and slashing. I could defend myself from the one in front of me, I could bob and weave through their strikes and even get a few hits in, or I would, if I wasn't being stabbing or cut by three separate swords, which if you can't tell is a pretty big distraction and also hurts like hades. So, the only way I could avoid being hit and just have a chance is to spin and engage with them for a second and then move on.

I didn't stop spinning to engage that happened as I was spinning so there was no need to stop.

However, this wasn't a solution, this was just holding them off and I was _definitely_ draining the energy I had. It was seeming pretty hopeless, like maybe i should come back another time, but then again this was a miniquest. From my gods damned father. I can't just give up, that isn't the Percy Jackson way. And with that in mind, I came up with a plan for a few seconds.

I knew that if i used my water in some large display they'd just dispute it or reverse it on me, but if i only used a little…

I gathered a small about of water, a gallon at most. I focused hard on the combat, but the rest of my mind was spend on focusing on keeping that water spinning with me, and going somewhat faster than me, somewhat like a forming tornado. Luckily they didn't notice. We had been doing this spin dance for maybe twenty seconds or it could have been minutes, but it was either now or never for me to spring my plan into acti-

We all stopped. The Hesperides looked down at me, as if they had one. They looked miffed, but also, frozen? They held their battle positions atop our fight spot. My vision panned down from the scenic view, down at my gut, where I had been stabbed strait through, by Sister Number Four. It was gushing and was burning, nothing had honestly hurt worse, not even my chest scars from that alpha hellhound. The pain was incredible, and eventually it took over. My mind went blank.

It was the pain that brought me back to reality. It took me a second to realize what was happening. All of the Hesperides were.. On the floor? With cuts on their arms and them cradling their stomachs. They seem like something had blown them , and judging by their damp clothes, it had been water. _My_ water. I really don't understand but I was standing in a pool of my own blood, exhausted, holding a knife and a sword.

Wait. A sword? I looked at it and it immediately clicked in my brain that this was Riptide, and that Riptide was _mine._ I had earned it, and I instantly felt empowered knowing i was holding it. Everything about it screamed its mine. It fit in my hand perfectly, I could feel our energies syncing and becoming one with Riptide. It was mesmerizing. But another thing enchanting is the excruciating pain in my gut. It was still gushing and looks to have teared in my apparent Frenzy.

I looked at the one barely conscious Hesperide, and told them,

"You were strong, and i never meant to hurt you. I am sorry, i never intended to kill any of you, and looks like i succeeded in avoiding it. Oh, and by the way, call me Percy." I backed up into a puddle of blood and water, which boosted me, and using one of my newer techniques, I took that energy and held onto it even out of the puddle. I propelled myself off the edge of the mountain, trying to keep control in my free fall into the ocean below, which i managed. I looked cool, which is always the goal, but it hurt enough to make me want to go to hades over it.

With weapons in hand, and a trail of blood behind me, I blasted myself into the ocean, where I proceeded to pass out in, still gripping my knives and bag. Time and the void was what I needed for a while.


	4. Chapter 4

_PERCY LIVE!_ I awoke with a start, with that echoing in my head as always, and noticed three very important things right off the bat. I was way off shore according to his nautical senses, that he just now learned he had. He could feel his current coordinates very clearly in his brain. To sum it up I'm just floating on the surface of the water, about thirteen miles off of where he jumped, so at least I'm not in the middle of the pacific.

The second thing, the pain. It was still very much there but it wa better than it was before. I looked down, and saw a pretty gnarly scar and a nasty bruise, as if I had got slammed with a cannon ball. It still hurt but more in a bruise way and not a I-Just-Got-Stabbed-Through-The-Gut pain.

And three, I was _still_ holding onto my stuff, and it was dry. I gotta thank dad for that, he is getting such a sacrifice someday. Also also, my sword Riptide. It was humming in my hands. I loved it. If i focused on it, I could sort of feel something different about it, and me. Questions for another time.

Right now, I gotta push through the pain and swim thirteen miles. Fun. As I started swimming, using the water around me to boost me forward, I heard a loud _Lord! Hold on!_.

I stopped, and as soon as i did I noticed the shimmering sea horse in front of me. A Hippocampus. _Hey. Do you think you could give me a ride to say, San Francisco?._ I questioned, I don't like taking advantage of my fathers subjects, but I feel this time I'm just in asking for help.

 _Of course Lord. Aswell, I bring a message from Poseidon. Check your book, and also, Good job, son._ That was nice to hear from the shiny horse I was currently riding like a jedski. To be honest it was pretty fun. I needed the relaxation after getting run through. Maybe I'd do some sight seeing. Or some soul searching with Riptide. Cause man I really needed to figure it out, and why it feels so gods damned good to hold. But first I need to check my book, once i get on shore of course. Just because the book wouldn't get wet out here, doesn't mean I can hold on to the Hippocampus and and hold the book at the same time.

As I feel the shore getting closer and closer I reflect on my current state of fashion. I am basically rocking Swiss cheese at this, point, I really need a fashion update. Maybe I could push my luck and butter up Poseidon with sacrifices to get some clothes that'll freaking last longer than one fight.

I looked across the water, and I saw many a dolphin hop out of water as we zoom past. I really like this ride. _Hey? Do you have a name dude?_ I didn't expect to call a water horse a "dude" today but what do you know, it happened.

 _Not that I know of. I'm relatively young and isolated compared to other Hippocampi._ Now that's sad. I don't wanna be rude but that's just depressing. I wanna help this guy out, he went through the trouble of helping me back to the mainland.

 _Does… That mean that_ I _could name you?_

 _I'd… actually really like that sire._ Well he done did it and called me sire. I frowned. I also needed to think of a name now, I can't just leave him hanging now… hm…

 _How about..._ _Cælitum? Or we can american-ize it a little and call you Caletum_

 **(A/N Guys his name would be pronounced cale- e/i-tum, and would usually have an accent over the E but it is really inconvenient to type on a regular keyboard, as well that's why we aren't sticking to the first name i put out there as that symbol is also highly inconvenient)**

 _I… love it sire, I truly thank you. If you ever need me, put out a mental distress near water and I will be there within a minute._ Wow, uh, I didn't expect that. But I think having a living, friendly jetski on call would be pretty cool, and as we arrived at the shore, I popped off and waved him goodbye as he swam off, back into the depths

I plunked down, right down on the spot I got off at, took out my handy dandy book, and shook out the next letter. It was once again, addressed to me in my dad's handwriting.

 _Son, you know who it is at this point._

 _You completed the challenge and got RIptide, and I'm genuinely proud of you._

 _It's not everyday your own son takes on multiple skilled warriors and comes out on top._

 _Im rambling however, Percy, you must be confused about why Riptide is so enchanting to you._

 _Son, it is because of many reasons, but mainly, because it is a weapon of the sea, wielded by a son of the sea, earned by a son of a sea, and gained at its place of creation, next to the sea._

 _You are more intune with it than you could ever be, and being so intune with it comes with some benefits._

 _Becoming a second limb to a human comes with mastery of a weapon, and yet you have already attained that. Any skill you would have earned working with a sword without your connection, is doubtlessly over attained just by having such a strong connection. It feels powerful, does it not? Regardless, there are two more things. Just because your innate skill and extreme connection make your potential sword skills unmatchable, doesn't mean you don't have to still train your butt off. And two, this will give you the ability to sense threats all over the country, and focusing on the sword will help track them, I just felt like that'd be important to know._

 _Goodluck son._

 _Father._

Well damn. I didn't expect that. But now that I'm aware of it, I can feel that tickling the back of my mind, like a subconscious blinking radar. It was a weird adjusting moment but I figured it out. All of a sudden my book shuffled.. Again? That was strange but I pull out a second letter.

 _Son_

 _I almost forgot. If you ever lose your sword, it will come back to you in the form of a pen, just uncap it and it will turn into a sword again, recap it to turn it back etc._

 _Aswell, I know you must be exhausted, so take a few weeks break. Relax and rest that nasty wound._

 _However when your healed up I need you to find a hydra that's on the loose mid-country. Riptide will guide you._

 _Be wary of the Hunt_

 _Father_

The Hunt? Like the Hunters of Artemis? I don't understand that part. But what I do understand is that there is a loose hydra going around. And it could be hurting people. Possibly even right now. And I know I should rest, and I will, But I refuse to wait weeks for more people to get hurt.

It's been three days, and after a few salt water soaks, I'm pretty much back in tip top shape, and the second I was, I was on the move. I reached out to Riptide, and I thrust my mind against its radar like abilities. I felt threats all around at first, but at some point, it somewhat clicked in my mind that i could figure out which monsters were which by the intensity of their "blip" on the radar. Once i figured out that I started my trek towards the biggest thing I could feel.

I couldn't drive or take a taxi, because I was guided out to the middle of the woods. It was a nice night out currently, and the animals were out, and I had seen a particularly large amount of deer. Odd, but not abnormal. I sensed the creature was a lot closer than the letter had said. It was clearly just barely out of state, which I would reach within a day at my pace. Nothing was gonna stop me from catching it.

It took me plenty longer than within a day to reach the border. Two days, lots of hills and monsters I needed to avoid to get there. I could now avoid monsters a lot easier now that I knew where they were within a few _states_ radius. It was kind of terrifying how many there were. However I was being side tracked when the bigger picture was right in front of me. I needed to reach that monster. I had traveled plenty within two days though, and now i needed rest. I laid out my pack and bag and I checked my perimeter. When I felt content enough that I could sleep, I allowed myself to pass out.

Demigod dreams almost always suck, which is good that I haven't gotten many since I had that episode in the train. Too bad that wasn't the only episode, I get them on occasion, and had before and still do to this day, but that doesn't matter. But for the first time in a long time, tonight, I had a demigod dream. And this one.. Starred my mother.

"I… just can't, my lady, I'm truly sorry, but I can't live your life." I heard her voice.. It was sweet, but This wasn't a memory or mine, it was one of hers. Nothing prepared me for what I saw.

"Nothing is technically stopping me.. _Lady Artemis,_ but living the life of a Hunter just isn't for me. Nothing against you or your Hunters, but no thank you" She sounded more sure of herself, more like the strong mother i had. Besides that, my mental jaw was dropping. My mother, who worked at a candy store, and had a CHILD with POSEIDON, was almost RECRUITED to join the hunters?

"That's such a shame Sally. You would have been a great addition to my hunt. But please, think on it." Artemis said this as she pulled out a very, very, familiar silver knife, and respectfully handed over it to my mother with her lasts words before the vision dissolved.

" _Consider"_

I woke up to tons of danger blips crowding my mind, becoming fully awake and aware in an instant. My mind adapted to the surrounds and the danger, my mind naturally associated things that were off about my surrounds with the danger. The difference of things from how I last saw them, a few broken twigs, and foot prints. As well as the HUGE assortment of dange behind me, and then I heard it.

"Up and on your knees, boy." _It was Lady Artemis, I was so fuc-_ she spoke once again, in a heavily no nonsense voice.

"What are you doing so close to my camp. Explain quickly and efficiently and maybe I woke put an arrow in your head, and I will avoid letting the other twelve arrows aimed at your heart fire." Well that was terrifying, but I should just come clean and tell the truth. It would probably help me, plus I wanted to make a good impression on a goddess who knew and respected my mother.

"Well my father sent me on a mission to kill a Hydra. I'm not fully sure why but that's what I was looking for when I picked up on your Hunters location, which I only now realize was you and not something else, I swear I didn't want to come anywhere near your camp." I was sweating bullets. I'd hope she wouldn't ask who I thought she'd be and why, and looks like for now I was in the clear.

"..." She studied me. "You aren't lying, and yet your tail makes little sense. Howe-" She had looked away from me, and at my stuff. Particularly, my silver knife. It took her a second to comprehend before clearing becoming more hostile, and I didn't need RIptides danger radar to figure that out, especially since I could now feel an arrow poking into the back of my head.

".. If you had not come here for us, then how did you acquire a knife of the hunt, particularly a person knife, that I gave away to a maiden decades ago, as a sign of respect." " _What did you do to her to get that knife"_ Though this is what i knew she meant. I shivered thinking about when I got the knife, awkwardly poking myself harder on the arrow.

"Answer me boy, before I fully lose my patience." She was grounded in needing to know why I had it.

"Fine, Sally Jackson was my mother, and right before she died, she gave it to me. It has been my main source of protection for the past two years. She died in a building crashing during a freak storm." I let out, just barely, really really hoping she'd let me go soon.

"... I apologize." I knew she didn't expect a response, so I didn't respond. After a few moments, I felt her retract herself, still wary.

"Collect your things, child, and get out of this state before I let loose my hunters to capture and skin you for fun. Run, you have thirty seconds." She said coldly as she started me down. I knew right then and there that she was dead serious. I collected my bag and my knife, and grabbed my beautiful, glowing bronze sword, which a particular Hunter, I didn't pay attention to who it was in particular, stifled a gasp at. I was too busy scurrying with my stuff awkwardly in hand away from the goddess of the hunt once she reached fifteen. As I started running, I called out,

"Perseus Jackson, but please call me Percy, or boy whatever!" I checked behind her to see her serious face twitch into shock and then into a slight grim, which was totally a win for Percy. Percy 1, Artemis, uh, discounting her complete control of the situation earlier, 0! As I said, A total win.

This is definitely what my dad was talking about when he told me to be careful with the hunters. And he was damn right. They were making my danger senses go wild. Nothing could have honestly scared me more. The Hydra will be a breeze.

After a very careful thought process, I decided breeze was a huge over exaggeration, and that I definitely needed more practice with my water abilities and my sword Riptide. So, that, in my mind, means to find the nearest naiad and get some help.

It didn't take me too long, being in a forest and all, I came across a stream pretty easily, and it brought back memories of my first naiad training experience. Once I found the river, I immediately went and found this naiad. Her bubbly basic naiad voice was a stark contrast from Humilis, my first teacher. I barely got real words out of her, in my mind or in real life. However, I understood her simple gurgles and hand motions. They were Instructions.

In my best translation, she told me that the seas are massive, but there are millions of waves and they are always different. I need to be able to harness the "details of the wave". It totally sounds like nonsense, I know. But it made a lot of sense. Basically, I had to focus and sculpt and let the water flow into a way that I can harness.

I raised my silver knife and let water gather around the top, sort of like extending the blade to be just as long as Riptide. It was taking a massive amount of concentration to maintain it, but I had essentially created a sword around my knife. It was reaching painful levels of concentration, so I let go. That, according to Humilis, was not acceptable, so, I did it again. And again. I kept doing it until a migraine had formed. I took a dip in this naiads stream, who was watching me, and giggling every time I got better. Stepping into the water relieved my head of the migraine, but not the mental strain.

I needed a breather. So Instead of continuing to make the sword shape, I made tendrils of water, and attempted to make shapes. I was better with the tendrils than the shapes. The tendrils fit my nature better I guess. It was more wild and alive compared to the simple and unmoving shape of the sword. So I guess that's why it takes a lot more effort to get the hang of.

For the next three days, I pushed myself a lot on the water control aspect of my these three days I able to work the water sword around the knife to be a lot more natural. I started actually practicing with the sword. The thing with this sword, Is since its made of water I can slash faster, much faster, than I could naturally, by moving the water. With my powers. On the third day I could hold, and use the water sword, even if it was pretty rough and not very manageable, without putting too much thought into maintaining it. I came here to train a bit before taking on the hydra, and one may think that this seems counterproductive, making myself a sword im worse at using, however this was training, and now that I could manage a sword shape, i feel that I have a higher control over water that I didn't have before.

On the morning of the fourth day, I took my things, waved off the naiad that i never got the name of, and trekked off in the direction of the hydra, which i could feel is still a few hundred miles away, but It was strong enough to still register on me. I was on my way.

 **So guys, how do you feel about this chapter, I know this is a big skip from what was going on before.**

 **I really really appreciate questions and ideas.**

 **I thought this was a good chapter so what did you think**

 **I am not posting daily btw I just have the time to make these**

 **also, should by the time this story is bigger, that percy should have his more powerful abilities, like his storm abilities, and mayber even some earthquake related abilities?**


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N I realize that last chapter kind of had a butt load of new information, Percy has a water blackjack, his sword helps him since danger, sally was almost a hunter, and percy seems to get these episodic visions (which I have a rough plan for that I think I will keep to myself, I hope you guys like it) also, son of Ophion, ur comments are gr8, and guest, I will try to continue lol)**

It took me five days to find it. I went through two more states on foot and occasion taxis. I really hoped that it wasn't a god I was sensing this time. Either way, I'm pretty sure I found it.

The Hydra's heads all roared in unison, which sounds like a firetruck, a police car, and an ambulance were having a siren match to see who was the loudest. Mortals probably heard it for miles. Scratch that, anything could have heard that for tens of miles. I think it almost ruptured my ear drums.

The beast was massive, much larger than that drakon I fought when I was eight. Its arms and legs were just as long, but plenty thicker, maybe the size of my chest It's scales were both large, but I can tell that they were thick as all hades. Its massive chest scales got smaller as it went up its necks, in which it had six in total. That means that some idiot cut off a head at least once. I feel like I'm gonna avoid that mistake.

My plan of attack, regardless of all the prep time I had, was simply attack. Or defend, as the behemoth was very aggressive, charging at me and shooting its heads forward to try and tear me in half. Fun. I really don't understand as to why my dad wanting to kill me. Like seriously, says he's proud then says "go kill a monster that is mostly suicide."

Once again, it shot two of its head forward at lightning fast speeds. Fear shot through my core, thicker than almost anything I'd ever experienced, however I could manage it. In my silly karate stance, holding my knife and sword, I dived into a roll, and came up and sliced at the thick hide of the beast.

Bad news, It wasn't even bleeding. Good news, I figured out how hard it would be to _make_ it bleed. Its hide was thick but not really impenetrable. That makes sense if people have been able to cut its head of, I just needed to stop pulling punches. Or in this case, sword swings.

But before all that, I gotta get out of reach of the Hydra's arm range as I had accidentally rolled into them. Listen kids, just because the heads are your main worry, don't forget that it has claws the size of my hard.

I propelled myself from my kneeling position to the side of the Hydra where it couldn't bite my body in half. As I ran past it I just kind of glided my sword against its hide, making a much more noticable indent on its side than on its neck. I felt like I had a mini victory until I forgot i was still running and I got slammed in the face by its hulking tail.

I was blown back, and I only stopped because I hit a tree. My vision was going triple, so now it looked like the Hydra has eighteen heads. It took me a second to clear my vision, but in that time the Hydra was on me again. And, once again, we were back to the I dodge and it attacks game. I think it likes this game more than I like this game.

Currently we were in a forest clearing, stream nearby, which was very handy. It was midday, and the Hydra heads at there tallest reached the treetops. I wasn't particularly ready to fight it when i started. It rudely woke me up from my nap, and let me tell you, i really did not want to be woken up like that.

All of a sudden, the Hydra stopped coming at me. Its heads started to sway, like they were listening to music. But then they all stopped, and started looking around the clearing. One curious looking head started going towards my stuff I had left on the ground. It was getting uncomfortably close to my bag, and I needed that bag, it had my credit card, as well as my book and my change of clothes, and my first aid stuff. I _needed that bag._ I couldn't just let the Hydra destroy it.

With that thought in mind, I got up from my crouch, and ran yelling at the Hydra, pulling the entire stream with me. My ears popped as my scream helped my entirety of the stream was made into a sharp point, and I drove it into the center of the Hydra. I was still running at it, and with my closing in on the Hydra, more and more water was pumped into the monster. I only stopped running when I was within being bitten distance. I was still hollering as I shoved even more water In the open wound, and when I looked at the Hydra, it was definitely looking a little bloated. As I forced the water into one place in the center of its body, forcing through its apparently soft insides, tearing through its organs, I stopped paying attention to wear the monsters heads were, and right when I was about to finish up my plan, I saw a Hydra head sneak around and open its mouth right next to me.

I was able to dodge to the side by lessening my focus on the water inside of it, but that doesn't mean I went unscathed. There was now a crippling pain in my cheek where it "nicked" me with one of its massive fangs. Or should I say cheeks and it split my cheek in half, and it was gushing so much blood and it hurt _so bad_ and I felt my consciousness slipping… But all of a sudden, I had a episode, and it felt like my cheek was dead and my mind exploded in pain but it was happening now of all tim-

 _I was on a beach, facing off a man in a biker suit with a flickering AK and Broadsword._

 _His sunglasses had melted off his face as he charged at me, yelling about me being a punk._

 _Out of the corner of my eye I saw the blonde girl, older than I had ever seen her._

 _With her was a satyr, biting his nails off._

 _As the biker was within striking distance, the blonde girl let out a scream._

I woke up a moment later, the pain as bad as ever, but I knew I needed to finish it.

With a scream comparable to a Hydra heads roar, I retook control of the water I had shoving through the Hydra and I pulled it out.

And by "pulled it out", I mean I _ripped_ the Hydra apart, pulling the water out from every direction and place. There was nothing it could do as the monster screamed in agony, but it could do nothing as its essence _rended_ in every direction, in a explosion of golden monster sand.

I dropped to my knees and pulled the sandy water I had put in the Hydra around me, and letting it heal my face, the process was slow, and really wasn't working. If there wasn't water surrounding my figure, I'm sure I would have felt tears going down my face. My energy was spent, and I couldn't maintain holding the water up. As I let the water drop, as if by magic it pulled itself back towards its path it belongs in. and with it, I floated across the top with it, not knowing where It was taking me but just, let it. I passed out soon after.

I woke up with a start. I was on a table, in a room I didn't recognize, with a man looking over me, that I didn't recognize, not at first atleast. As my vision came into focus, i realized I was on a table, In what looks like a checkup room. So at least I knew I wasn't in danger. Or being probed by aliens. And then I took a look at the humming doctor, and I realized it was-

"Hey man, I found you floating through this town's creek. I happened to notice you were alive and pretty messed up in the facial area, so I thought I'd patch you up a little." Apollo said pretty brightly, The way he said it was cheery, but the way he looked at me held more than just a desire to see me ok. My head was going nuts, and I was in front of my second god within a week.

"I also read your mind a little, and I think I can answer your questions, and maybe help with your fashion issues." He said the last part with a wink, but overall he seemed a little somber.

"Uh, thanks apollo, but am I interrupting your, uh, time to pick up women." I asked, cause I feel like that's something he would be upset about. He perked up, and smiled a little wistfully but other than that his expression didn't change.

"Nah man, I already bagged a date for tonight, so as long as our little talk doesn't later five hours I think we're good on that front, anyways." He cleared his throat. "Your face was pretty banged up, Percy. It is healed, but It was already starting to heal over when I got to you, so I couldn't stop the.. Scaring. Buuuut, I was able to remove as much as I could, which was about thirty percent. Sorry dude." I felt like he was holding his breath for something else, but this was already pretty bad. Luckily enough I already had to deal with some scars, so it really wouldn't be that bad.

"That Hydra you fought, which was an amazing fight by the way, one of the best I've seen this century, cut fully through your cheek and took out some of your teeth. I, being the amazing god I am, gave you new teeth, and restored your ability to taste things, which you sort of lost. You have a small scar on your tongue where it nicked you, as well your jaw now has a little line where it was sliced through, but I patched it up to be stronger than before, you're welcome!." So basically my face was messed up and now its less messed up. Got it. Cool.

"Apollo, I don't care about the scarring or what was wrong with my face before, get to what your holding back about." I spoke pretty boldly, especially to a god. I think he let it go because he thought i was pretty stressed.

"..You have the beta version of the sight. If you just had it a little bit more, or even just a different version you could be the first male Oracle of Delphi. I have no actual idea how you obtained it, as only women are supposed to be able to have it. I must've started slacking." I just sort of looked at him. I only started reading about the Oracle recently, so the details were hazy, but I was aware of what it was. But.. Me?

"I really don't understand, what does that mean for me.. And you." Cause I felt like it was important for both of us.

"I'm not really sure. I'm usually chill with my Oracles, and check up on them and give them cool stuff, but you're not an Oracle. And your male, which is new. But I think there's something definitely interesting." He furrowed his eyebrows for a second before he clearly had an idea. Like a lightbulb appeared above his head, except instead of the lightbulb lighting up, he lit up. He whispered something that I didn't catch and shuffled his feet. He was looking down, like he was really contemplating something.

He perked up after what seemed like five minutes. An awkward five minutes indeed. He lifted up his hand and showed it to me, and I leaned forward to see it better, because it started to glow. As I stared into its glow, I felt the space behind my eyes start to ache, and within the golden glow I saw images. Scenes, battles people I don't know. Myself, in the future, looking taller, being a little too close to some girl, which was kinda gross. I was so inraptured in it, that i only noticed a change when his hand darted forward, and was placed on my forehead.

I slowly felt my body heat up, then start to burn. It felt like my eyes were melting, and let me tell you, it _sucked_. My eyes started burning even more, and more and more and more and more, I couldn't bare it. And then, Nothing. No pain, there was nada, not even lasting aches. Everything seemed slightly more _off_ then it was before. I felt like I had a fever, because I was very warm, but i was comfortable. My eyesight was also slightly sharper than it was before, which was really impressive since I'm 90% sure I had twenty twenty vision before.

"What.. did you do to me, I feel really funny.." I was feeling a little woozy but overall I felt sort of healthier than I was before.

"You have your book right? Flip to page.. 12,000, on the dot. That's what I did." Actually, I didn't need to. I already had gotten to that page, and just _maybe_ sort of memorized it. Besides that, my jaw had sort of dropped to the floor. He just, WHAT. I-I can't believe he made me his-

"Champion." He looked sort of embarrassed. "Basically, if you don't know, which by that jaw drop I think you do, but regardless. You're basically on my payroll. You will get a few subtle powers, you can't get sick, your inability to use a bow is fixed. Music come easier to you, and best of all, if you close your eye you got from Poseidon, and look at someone solely with the Golden Eye I gave you, they can only tell you the absolute truth." He handed over a mirror he didn't have a second ago.

I looked into it and gasped. Both my eyes were accentuated, my green eye looked deeper than it was before, more powerful. I sensed that you could see it, even in complete darkness. Same goes with the.. New eye. The new eye was on my right side, same side as the scar. Nothing could describe it and give it justice, But, imagine the sun, but deeper and richer in color. I looked over, and closed my left eye, and asked Apollo,

"Is there anything you're not telling me?" He smiled.

"Doesn't work on me bro." He paused. "But yeah, there are little things I haven't mentioned, I thought you'd like to figure it out on your own, they're small though." I looked at him like "Seriously man?" but he grinned and snapped his fingers. A bag appeared in my hands, with clothes inside it.

"Some clothes for ya. They'll grow with you, and repair themselves if you get stabbed, slashed, or _shot_. Plus they stay clean smelling, so it's basically the best set of fashion ever." Now his smile was a little strained as he said his last few words to me verbally for the next two years.

"I won't spill to the gods that you are Poseidon's son, cause I'd rather you be alive than dead." and with that he waltzed out of the checkup room, and when I peeked out of the hall he was gone.

Well, today has been an eventful day. I checked the bag of clothes, and surprisingly, they weren't too bad. Leather jacket with a huge Sun sowed into the back, with my father's Trident dualing the sleeves, with a mixture of the two symbols over my heart pocket in one of the coolest looking emblems ever. The other thing were black jeans, as well as pair of shorts and a t-shirt, with the t-shirt having a similar set of emblems. I slipped off my clothes, put on the new ones, but kept off the jacket cause it was summer time.

I jogged off to find out directions, because I definitely needed to go get my bag, as well as the rest of the things I left there. I left the little town thinking the only reason I'm alive is because of the sun god.

I found all my stuff just fine. Turns out though, I was _quite_ a ways away. Twenty-odd miles of stream turned river turned creek. I trekked all the way back on foot and found my stuff untouched. I found two letters in my book, and for the first time one of them was from Apollo, and I had a hunch it was my first thing I had to do for him. And the one from my father, on review, just said that he knows about the Apollo fiasco and would talk to him about it. And that on my twelfth birthday.

He congratulated me on the Hydra, and explained it was a challenge to see how strong I was. I was pretty miffed about it but its whatever I guess, my dad just wanted to see what I could do.

Apollo gave me an assignment, which is prolly just his todo list knowing him. I had to go check up on his cattle, or whatever that means. Find a "delta symbol" and "follow the path my Golden Eye shows me" or whatever. I really wasn't sure about it, and with me being so tired I didn't really care. At least I'll never be bored. Sigh.

 **Hey guys, tbh this was a definite on my feet decision to make percy a champion, please forgive me, I need plot lines.**

 **Do you like how he killed the Hydra?**

 **Do you like his powers? I'm sorry son of Ophion but im holding off on earthquake and storm powers because those are sort of marks of mastery, they will be there tho.**

 **Seriously guys, ask questions I need life purpose.**


	6. Chapter 6

Being back in Montauk was weird, even if It was only for a meet up. You see, about a month ago I got a letter from my dad. He told me to meet up with him here in about a months time. Which kind of sucked because I was in Hawaii. Nasty business, how I got there. I really tried to put what happened there past me. I mostly succeeded, but some things just never leave you. I've woken up in a cold sweat over the whole ordeal. The anxiety I get over it is sorta pathetic. It really was the a nightmare.

I've got a fair share of scars out of it. For once, none of them stab wounds, just burns, piercings (not the professional kind), and bite marks. The works. The… _burn_ s were particularly the worst. They ached and itched. They raised my skin like embroidered shirts. Pretty unpleasant.

Anyways I'm off track. Montauk was beautiful this time of year, a little cold, but beautiful. I really hadn't seen much of this place since I started my traveling, opting to avoid Long Island in general. I really didn't trust myself to not go peak around camp. But i knew that i couldn't, dad's orders and all that.

I had been sitting in the sand, much how I had when I was eight, when I heard someone creep up behind me that wasn't there before. I figured since Riptide wasn't yelling at me, I was safe, plus, the smell of the sea was getting pretty thick in the air. For a god, he was sort of goofy, just plopping down into the sand next to me.

Goofy, but godly. I hadn't seen my dad since I was eight, sure, I'd had a lot of contact with my dad, even if it was one way messaging, but I hadn't _seen_ him. I did a once over of him, and damn, he looked much brighter than he did when my mom died. His skin was tan, healthy. He was had a slightly bulky swimmers build, and a thick beard. Jet black hair, and he looks like he's in his mid twenties. He would look like any normal dude to anyones else, a very handsome one, but just a normal dude.

 _However_. My ordeal from the past year hasn't left me soft, or my senses dull. Even if I didn't already know, I would be able to feel the power just _bubbling, swirling, sloshing, massive, barely contained,_ and he just walks, or should i say teleports, around like he isn't a being ready to explode with energy. It's palpable, his power, his grace. It's weird to feel that for your father, but most fathers aren't elder gods. I had a strong feeling my dad would stomp even Zeus when it comes down to it. Apollo was blindingly powerful, yes, but he wasn't as just purely absurd with it like my father. I gathered this all from a two second stare down with him. I cracked a grin.

"Been a minute since we met up. We should do it more often dad, it's nice." I was actually really happy to see him. Seeing him, it reminded me of my real lack of human contact. The only time I'd talked to someone intelligently without the threat of death was small talk with cashiers, usually asking me how I got a credit card. And while that taught me to lie and be a little snarky and sassy, social skills, it did not.

"Quite. I'm sorry son, I've just been very busy. Especially right now." I looked at him, that didn't make much sense. If the reason we couldn't talk in person was because he was busy, and if he's even more busy now, then this must be important. What could be so important, that we needed to meet up in Long Island, almost 5,000 miles away from Hawaii, that I only made in time because of good old Caletum. He was a damn good ride, and always came through. Damn ADHD.

"Ah. You're catching on. Sorry that this couldn't be a for-fun visit, but pressing matters are occuring. Zeus's symbol of power, his Master Bolt, was stolen on the solstice, and he's been in a fit ever sense. Ever since his daughter died a few years back-" Apollo's Sight came barreling through my skull, knocking over mental shelves and causing a general havoc in my brain, shooting images and noises screaming past, with one single image connecting them all together. The goth girl, with spiky black hair. She was the daughter of Zeus, but her being dead didn't seem to fit. The ceaseless pain receded, making me realize there wasn't even a pause in my father's speech, with me barely catch the end of was saying."- he's been in a rut."

"Thalia." I stated, which i don't know how but that's what her name was. Is. My father looked surprised, but glanced at my Golden Eye and then became calm again.

"Yeah, Thalia. You see, he blamed a camper, but it's obvious that it's not that kid, because she is a child of Demeter. A Katie Gardner, and she's been watched closely ever since, and the only thing stopping Zeus from wiping her out of existence, is the fact that literally everyone else knows that she did not steal it." I looked at my father, he usually doesn't speak that much at a time, but it looks like he wasn't done.

"You see Percy, Zeus would have blamed you, if her knew you were alive." Now THAT caught my attention

"Wait wait wait, he doesn't know I'm alive?" It sounded absurd. He's the KING of the GODS, and doesn't know I'm alive? ... Wait.

"Is… is that why he hasn't come after me after all this time, even though I'm clearly alive? Is that what Apollo ment about not telling the gods I was alive? How?" I asked too many questions at once for a normal person to handle, but he's a dad, and a god, so he got it down.

"Remember what I did to your knife? How I sort of blessed it but you didn't seem to get any sort of gain from it?" Oh yeah. That makes plenty sense. It clicked in my brain as I answer him.

"Yeah, wait, you sort of cloaked me didn't you?" That was the only thing that made sense, and as to why I can have unrestricted contact with my dad.

"Exactly. Now, you have to right this. Katie will die eventually if we let this keep up, and Demeter will retreat into herself, which means no harvest, which means people are going to starve, this is something you have to do son. Go, save the girl." I nodded. This wasn't a father son talk anymore, this was more serious.

"When I claim you, my son, tell Chiron that you are to have a quest. Now off you go." He got up, and waved his hand in a particular direction, and the path to camp lit up in my brain. I looked back to where he was, and saw only his head sticking out of the water before it dipped under. I immediately knew that that was my cue to go. With that thought in mind, I started sprinting in the direction of the camp.

Almost an hour later, I was still sprinting strong and I knew I was finally getting close. I felt a thunderstrike clash down from the heavens, and with it, came heavy rain. With that rain, my sprint went from National Level sprinter to Gold Medal Olympic Level casually. I knew if I pushed it I could reach somewhere around 32ish miles per hour, which was pretty crazy since I was only, like, twelve.

A sudden change occurred in the path, a swerve in the road indicating a hill, which was sorta hard to see in the dark, even with my slight ability to see in it due to the Golden Eye. I looked up and saw _it_. A massive tree. The screaming pain behind my eyes told me that that was _Thalia._ Jesus I need to figure out how _that_ went down.

As I slowed to a walk, and turned off the road, I heard a snort. My danger senses, which I had been ignoring in my violently fast sprint, I started paying attention to as they were blaring. The hulking figure of a cow man, the Minotaur, stood behind me. His nose was snotty, his chest was hairy, and his breath was probably the most scary thing about him. I had seen a lot of scary ass monsters though, and after… _that year in hell. Year Eleven._ I brush off fear now. That's about it. So as I stare down the huge cow dude, and he charges me, I jumped into a roll, came up kneeling, and shove my water covered hand, shaped in the sharpest form I could make currently, and shoved it into its side as it barreled past.

I turned towards what should currently be a pile of golden sand. However when I still saw the cow man, I was a little peeved. Hades must be pissed off. Looks like I'd need to mutilate it to get rid of it.

The Minotaur finally turned around, and prepared to charge at me again, I decided to be a bit of a show off. I controlled the water as to grab my legs and lock me in place, and to cover my arms to make them more force absorbent. Yeah. That's right. I was gonna catch him by force.

The monster tilted its massive horns towards me, and ran full sprint at me. A unstoppable force of mass, stopped by a twelve year old boy grabbing its horns.

It pushed, even though it couldn't move any further, and pushed. It was futile, clearly, but the monster didn't give up. C-CRACK. I almost flinched, that sucks for the cow man. Both of his horns just got ripped off. He relented to stand straight up and screamed. I was unphased. I took its massive horns in my hands, and then shoved them into the exposed chest of the Minotaur. A scream of anger turned to a cry of pain. I shoved deeper, and twisted. The cow man stopped making any noise, and made one last swipe with its meaty arms, but disintegrated on contact with my head.

Well, that was interesting. After a second, I reached into my pocket of my jacket Apollo gave years ago. He was right by the way, it didn't even stink, and it fit perfectly, plus it was pretty fashionable.I pulled out a old timey pirate eye patch, and slipped it over my Golden Eye. It's what I had been rolling with when I wasn't fighting, cause I wouldn't wanna freak out people, or force people to tell me the truth on accident, so I've covered it up.I felt a little too cool when I put it rain stopped. I smiled to myself, looking at my two horns. Well, I needed to go help that poor girl Katie, and make some friends along the way. As i turned to the hill, I saw someone. It was a lone satyr, and even in the dark, with my night vision I could see his completely frozen expression. It would be funny, if not for the fact that he screamed right after,

"What thE HADES" My eyes widened. Pardon my french but. Fuck.

 **I really needed grovers and percys bromance, so, i came up with this.**

 **Also, my concept,** _ **Year Eleven**_ **, what do you guys think. I mean, its pretty clear what generally happened, if you figured it out, tell me in the review section. But, details are whats important.**

 **Also, the eyepatch covering his Golden Eye, cool right?**

 **Guys? Please comment it makes me want to die less.**

 **Also, I'm probably gonna take a few days off to right a baseline for this section of my story because I don't wanna just go off of my ideas on a whim, shoot ideas out if you have anything you really want to see, and maybe ill listen ;)**


	7. Chapter 7

Gods damn it. Everything was going so well for a second, and now, I'm having a stare down with a very freaked out satyr. He could _not_ tell the other campers yet, it would ruin the plan that I had worked out in my head. I had to make sure that he didn't tell them about me yet, and with that thought I sprinted up the hill to get to him.

"BA A AH! No! Don't hurt me please!" He was whimpering, which was sorta funny I had to admit. I reached the top of the hill, and he froze completely. It was sort of worrying, cause his gaze was locked ahead, and when I waved in front of his eyes, he wasn't responsive.I poked him.

"BA A AH!" He cried out, and I feel like he probably wouldn't hear me, but I had to try, and fast because out of the corner of my eye I noticed some kids in armor jogging over hear. I leaned down and whispered in the satyrs ear.

"Hey, I'm not gonna hurt you G-Grover," A flash of the Sight went through my brain, making me falter. This was the satyr from my vision from years ago, the one on the beach. His name popped into my brain, along with a slight headache. "I really need you to not freak out, and to also not tell them that I killed the Minotaur that easily, I'll owe you one." I said fairly fast, but he seemed to get it. He still seemed unsure, I finished off with three words that made him sit up straighter, "It's for Katie."

"Hey kid! Who are you, and what's wrong with Grover?" The guy who spoke up and looked like the leader was a tall blonde male, definitely older than me. He had a pretty nasty scar on his face but that was whatever, so did I and mine was debatably worse. Speaking of my facial scar, the three people behind him seemed to be staring at my face, two of them at my eye patch and one at the scar ripping through my cheek. My eyebrow twitched.

"My green eye is here you know." I said as I gestured at it. I think I embarrassed them.I answered the tall guys questions.

"Perseus Jackson, Percy please. I'm new. Also, if you're wondering about these," I pointed to the Minotaur horns sticking out of my bag, "They're from the Minotaur that i just barely was able to kill about five minutes ago." I said that somewhat casually, but to be honest I was out of breath slightly, but in all honesty it wasn't that hard of a fight. Year Eleven toughened me up against these sort of monsters.

"Well then, welcome to Camp Half-Blood, shelter of Demigods. You're safe here." The guy said as he took off his helmet, which was already loose and pretty open in the face area, but as I saw the rest of his face, I stifle a gasp. It was the older guy with Thalia and the blonde girl from my older visions. I wonder what happened, I'll probably have to ask him himself, too bad I'm not good with people.

"Cool, Chiron's in charge right?" He looked a little surprised, but he responded with a even more surprising answer.

"Actually, it's Dionysus, it's his punishment. Chiron's his right hand though." He laughed a little at my shocked expression.

"Alright then. Hey Grover, care to give me a tour? We can go visit Chiron and Dionysus after." Grover was still very weary of me, but slowly nodded.

"Yeah… sure." He stood up a little straighter.

"Lead the way goat boy." He pouted but started off our tour, taking me away from the core of the camp.

"Over there are our twelve cabins, you can tell which one is which by their quirks according to their host god. All their children live in their cabins. G-get it?" Grover spoke somewhat calmly but he was obviously avoiding looking at me.

"Grover. I'm not going to hurt you. Or anybody at camp. Why are you so skittish about me?" I questioned. I really wanted him to get over this fear of me, Grover seemed like he would be a good friend, and I kinda needed those.

"Y-you took down a MINOTAUR with your _bare hands._ With some kind of water powers that I don't know how you have. You don't smell like a son of Poseidon, plus Poseidon's oath against having children has been in place for years, and breaking it would mean bad business."

Ah, that. That definitely make sense. I feel like i should explain it too him, but this is the place of the gods, and I can't trust it doesn't have ears.

"Grover, listen, I have a knife that conceals my lineage. It's my silver one, you'll probably see it soon enough." His eyes widened, a look of understanding came on his face. I continued.

"I have known I was a demigod for over four years now. My father however, said it wasn't safe here. That's why I only came here now." I leveled my eyes with his.

"I've revealed my existence to the godly world, so I can't tell you who my father is. Once I'm claimed though, I will explain more to you. Now, where to next." I finished up. I think Grover likes me more, or at least is less weary. We went past a lot of Cabins, and grover pointed out lots of tidbits, such as the dining hall, the wall climbing area, the firepit, and We stopped at Half-Blood Hill.

"Ok Pierce, we should go over to Chiron no-" I raised my eyebrow for a brief second at "Pierce" before the centaur himself came up to us.

"Hello child, welcome to camp. I heard from Luke that you just came in, and that you defeated the Minotaur, very impressive, how long have you known your heritage." He was light spoken, trustworthy. His eyes looked ancient, which they were. He was definitely the trainer of heroes.

"Four years. Hasn't been sunshine and rainbows without camp, but I got by." Both Chiron and Grover look like they almost fell down. Chiron was looking very surprised. Grover looked down right shocked.

"That's very impressive.." "Percy" "Percy. How big of a group did you travel with to pull that off?" What? Does he mean like a group like Luke's? I didn't think those were that common.

"Uh, none? Why, is that a common thing?" I was honestly confused, and a little jealous. Did normal demigods usually have groups? Why didn't I? I guess it doesn't matter in the end, but still.

Chirons expression dropped completely.

"You've had a tough life, my boy, but no longer. This camp has magical borders, thanks to" he points at Thalia's tree, "that tree's magic." He seemed to genuinely care for me, and that was appreciated. He looked around camp with a pride, he truly felt like we were a lot safer here then out there.

It really was admirable. He looked down at me, then realized he was lost in his own head.

"Alright Percy, go to the hermes cabin for now, and you'll adjust soon enough. Annabeth will explain it all to you." Who was Annabeth?

Annabeth was the girl from my visions on the beach, the one looking after Grover. She had come up to Chiron, disgruntled, after he called after her. We were introduced, and I almost gagged from surprise. Looks like all three of the people from my vision are at camp, regardless if one is a tree.

She was grumpy, but a good guide. I explained to her what Grover already explained, and she nodded.

"He got most everything down, but there are still a few things. You'll stay in the Hermes cabin until you are claimed, don't ask when, I don't know." I nodded, and was about to say something, but she continued. Man, she was bossy.

"Keep your bag close to your person, they are the children of the biggest thief in the world." She said, in a sort of a final matter, eyeing my duffle bag. I had a large blue and black duffle bag around my shoulders, it holds its roundish shape and is slung on at an angle. It's pretty stuffed, mostly with First Aid and changes of clothes. All in all, its around thirty pounds.

"Yeah, I'm aware. Definitely don't want the Travelers, Thieves, Herds, Roads, Trade, and Diplomacy, as well as a bunch of other smaller things being too close to my stuff." She looked at me for a second, and then said,

"Yeah." I expected more, but she looked a little irritated. I don't know by what, I don't have a lot of experience with people, let alone males.

We approached the Hermes cabin, and It was pretty loud. Annabeth turned to me, warning in her eyes.

"There are a lot of kids in there, most of them are the unclaimed kids. I'm letting you know now, that since you seem both awkward and antisocial, that they will try to talk to you." She was pretty serious, but she laughed at my expression, which was a mixed of horrified and challenged.

"Rude but accurate. I really appreciate the faith Annabeth, I really do." I turned away from her eye roll, and marched up the steps. I almost tripped up on a certain wonky step, but I saw it right as I was about to get tripped by it. I spun around it, and with my 360, I firmly planted my foot on the

Annabeth, as well as the peeking campers from inside, looked surprised. I don't see why.

I walked inside pretty casually, and stopped in the doorway. The entire room was wild. There were campers all over, which was weird for the middle of the day. Each and every bed was filled, and each bed was either super messy or super clean. There were like three girls. The age range was impressive, I saw a six or seven year old chilling out with someone who seemed to be about twenty. I tilted my head.

"So," I called out. "Which corner of the floor do I get, or do I get to pick?" I asked dryly. It caught the attention of everyone in the room, except the six year old. They all looked at me, looked at eachother, and looked at me again.

"A brother or a Unclaimed? One of the kids called out.

"Perceptive enough to avoid the trip in the doorway, but definitely unclaimed" Luke said, coming through the door. The other kids looked surprised. Luke looked at me, well, down at me from his height and being so close.

"Back left, there's a free space right there, and a decent pillow." He smiled.

"Thanks Luke." I lifted up a peace sign with my left hand, and left the Cabin, not even setting my things down. He called after me,

"Hey! Tomorrows Capture the Flag. Be ready. Dinner is in a few hours, and don't do anything stupid until then." I waved behind me with a simple "Got it." and walked off.

Last night's dinner was uneventful. Chiron introduced me, and got a mild cheers all around. The table I sat at was pretty crowded, and I wasn't a fan of it. All the unclaimed and Hermes kids together at one big table was definitely a little much for me. We sacrificed food to the gods, which was a new experience. I sacrificed to my father, Apollo, and Hermes, which didn't leave me with much food left, but I was used to that, so it wasn't a big deal.

Now I'm here, the next day, mid afternoon, about to play capture the flag. The teams were Hermes, Athena, and Demeter, against Ares, Apollo, and Aphrodite.

Luke called over to me, and asked where my weapons and armour were. I looked around, and realized everyone had already put on a full set of armor nad had draw their weapons. I looked at him and pulled out my knife and pen. I showed him the pen as I uncapped Riptide. It felt really good, like a massage to your brain.

"These two things are my weapons, and I don't have any armor. I don't want any either." He looked pretty surprised at the sword, but it pales in comparison to the fact that I was going armorless. He seemed like he was gonna argue with me, but then Annabeth came up. She looked over and said,

"Where's your armor, and why are you still wearing your stupid bag?" She looked miffed but only when she looked at me.

"I've never fought with armor before, I won't start now. And I have no place to put down the bag, plus It makes no difference if I'm carrying it or not, I'm still fast." I replied, bored. They looked really weirded out, but just let me do that because I feel they knew arguing was pointless.

Annabeth was laying out the plan to our cabins, and it's there I learned our difference. Athena always has a plan, and I rarely do. That doesn't really change our success rating, but it's just a simple truth. And out of all the planners in the Athena cabin, Annabeth was the best. Now her temper on the other hand…

"Percy, you're at the lake. You seem capable enough to hold the point down there. Don't let them pass." That caught my attention. As well as the rest of the rooms.

"What? Why the noobie?" One of the Athena campers questioned, which while irritating, was the same question on my mind.

"Did you people forget about the fact that he killed the Minotaur? Like, yesterday?" _That_ caught a couple of people's attention. Looks like they were out of the loop.

"Uh, when the hades was this?" A random camper asked. I decided to speak up.

"Did you not hear what the lady said, yesterday." That got a strong chuckle out of the group that already knew. I felt a little bad but I honestly wasn't in the mood to apologize, I was hungry.

In the distance, we all turned to the whistle of Chiron. He called out to us all, his voice carrying through the forest, probably reaching the other team even though they were far away.

"Campers! You have three hours, magic items and maiming are legal. Try to avoid getting stabbed please. You have Two hours, GO!" And we were off.

 **This chapter didn't have much action in it, but we got introduced to plenty peoples**

 **Seriously people, leave reviews.**

 **So ships. Sorry man, I don't really think i can work Jackson La Rue**

 **I'm pretty sure I said that this wouldn't be a Percabeth thing but im having doubts. I was aiming for Maybe perlia, which could still happen, but im actually considering Percabeth. I may go down a cruel spider route and make them date when theyre like, thirteen or fourteen**

 **Guys send ideas for fights, moments, love interests.**

 **Also, just a small hint for the future of this story, percy's fatal flaw isnt loyalty, and Ive had an idea on what it would be since the first chapter, moments in mind.**

 **Pls review I need**


	8. Chapter 8

So, this was fun. As I had been designated to the pond, I had been standing guard as I was told, and I've been having a pretty intense battle… with boredom. Nothings happened. I've been standing here for almost twenty minutes, and I've been able to hear clashes throughout the forest due to my keen senses and danger radar, but I've stayed at my post because nothing was within my eye range.

However, despite all the sounds all around, there had been nothing, going strong for twenty minutes. I had been imagining how I'd reveal myself to camp, but nothing just seemed to fit. I guess I'll just have to wait until there is a good moment to do it, I really needed to help Katie. I swept my surroundings one more time, and when nothing picked up, I decided to pray for it.

I decided to pray to dad for this, because I'm not a fan of Ares and this situation is more situated for my father than Apollo. I promised extra snacks for the fire pit. And then I sat there, and waited.

Two minutes go by for the the prayer to start to take effect, cause that's when I felt something, and heard the bushes rustle. I looked over from my sitting position to see the entire Ares cabin, led by a beefy girl who I'm pretty sure was Clarisse, their Head Counselor. I was still sitting down, but they saw me and quickly ran up to me.

"Hey punk! If you know what's good for you, surrender now." One pig faced kid yelled, trying to look threatening by poking me with spear. They were all looking at me funny, and then one kid shuffled a little bit.

"Where's your armor newbie? Couldn't figure it out?" They snickered at that. It wasn't even that funny, they really were more brawn than brains. I rolled my eyes and stood up.

"Well, they are unnecessarily complicated. LIke thirteen straps? Come on guys, we're all ADHD. But, no, I just didn't feel like i needed it." They laughed it that too, which I don't know really were just not the brightest. One of them looked uneasy, which was surprisingly Clarisse. She backed up a slight bit but looked even more aggressive than before. She muttered something but I couldn't hear it.

"Now," I whipped out my sword and knife, and from every direction I disarmed all of them, because compared to the Hesperides, this fight was a lot easier. Plus I didn't get stabbed through the gut when it was over. I put Riptide away, now only holding my knife. It was a seven inch flash, butting heads, crumpling bodies to the floor, and spinning like a madman. With the last of the flunkies knocked out cold,

"you should probably get your siblings to toughen up. This was hardly a fight, so I hope ours last a little longer." I smiled to her infront of me. And all she did was scowled.

"You think you're some kind of Hotshot don't you, punk. Whatever." She flipped her braid to be behind her back, and then charged forward with her weapon. As she stabbed forward, I noticed a crackle of energy popping off the side of the blade tip. I wasn't really a fan of electricity. And I definitely didn't like coming into direct contact with it. So I made the executive decision to dodge as hard as I possibly could.

I ended up doing a backflip, and the second I touched the ground I pushed off and started send a barrage of knife strikes, knocking back her spear, and rushing forward. I struck her armor once, twice, three times before I finally bashed her helmet making a loud gong like sound. She dropped to one knee, but held onto her spear. I dropped my knife an inch or so, and suddenly her massive form shot up, much faster than I thought she could do, and grabs her spear with her other hand, right below the blade and starts stabbing back, similar to my rush. I really wasn't expecting it, so her first stab nicked me. I bounced bag, holding that particular area, and a frown came on my face. I flipped my knife so that it was away from me, and charged right back at her, deflecting her strange emergency spear style with a seven inch knife. We clashed, and there were sparks. However in a moment of pure tension and focus, I heard a yell, and a stream of people running after a bobbing and weaving figure that was leaving them in the dust. It was luke.

I pushed off my clash with Clarisse with a kick off from her breastplate, landing another successful backflip (I had been practicing in my spare time). She grunted from being kicked, but stood up silently and watched with me as he crossed the border line, signalling my teams win. I let out a sigh, It would be time for my reveal soon.

Luke carried the flag like a soldier would a rifle during a march. He was was breathless as he came up to me and Clarisse. I looked at him as he approached. I looked at his build as he approached. He was lean, but thicker than most runners in the muscle category. I realized that he was built for speed, and could probably out pace me easily. Currently, I could go faster than the fastest mortal. However, he, as well as most Hermes kids, but more him than anyone, he must have been fast as all living hades. He could possibly double my running speed. I realized that if it wouldn't be a stretch to say that he could run with cars on the highway if he pushed himself.

He came to a stop beside me with a simple "sup." I liked him. He gandered around our feet, and looked like he was counting the bodies. He looked impressed, but not surprised. He looked at Clarisse, specifically the dent on her Helmet, and the scratches on her spear. Finally he zeroed in on my bloody shirt hole. He glanced at my non expressive expression, and smiled.

"You're pretty tough for a little guy aren't you?" I pouted. That was uncalled for.

"You bet your ass when I'm your size I'll kick your but to hades and back." Clarisse looked between both of us, a blank expression, but a little light on the anger surprisingly, and walked off, and pushed past the people coming through the forming crowd, and when I looked back at luke, he was all the way on the other side of the group. Chiron trotted up, and proclaimed my teams win. My team cheered, and the other team, the ones that were conscious at least, booed us all lightly. It was all fun and games, until we heard a roar.

A rippling mass of black flesh and force came at me and sunk its front claws deep into my chest, right before I was able to draw Riptide, and in one swing slash the monster in half. It exploded into shadows and sand, it's only lasting imprint the holes in my chest and the roar lingering in the forest. I fell to one knee, and gasped. Everyone became unfrozen and started yelling, with only Katie gardner coming forward to help me immediately. I heard yelling from her, but this was my chance to get a word into her. I pulled her close to my face, she was really startled and started pushing against me but I held fast, she needed to know.

"Hold on.. Katie, I'm gonna be fine, and the gods are about to get off your back, I promise." I was breathing heavily, and I pushed away her surprised expression. I stood up slightly shakely. Did I mention the gouges in my chest were _painful, be_ cause it definitely was. The holes were two inches deep and a few centimeters wide, and there were lots of them.

Everyone was freaking out, and a few more campers came for to stop me from standing, but I needed to do it. I stood up fully and firmly after a few seconds, blood was gushing out of me, but I didn't care. I raised my hand up towards the water, and smoothly pulled the most famous of domains of my father towards me without any real effort. Everything stopped. I pulled it up to my body, swirling it around my body, leaving only my head sticking out of the stop. I held that mini anti whirlpool for seconds, a minute, and then letting it flow off of me. It pulled away, leaving me and the ground dry, and settled back down in the pond, like a sleepy dragon settling in for a nap.

And lets just say that sleepy dragon was not expected by the crowd, nor was the Golden Trident, which got me a few looks, mostly from Chiron and Annabeth, before most everyone was kneeling, with Chiron chanting out a chant that sounded more formal than anything I'd heard out of his mouth before hand.

"All hail Perseus Jackson, Son of Poseidon, King of the Seas, Earthshaker, Father of Horses, Lord of Storms." My dad sounds pretty cool. Here was my moment. I prayed for everyone to hear me.

"My Dad is definitely Poseidon, or the guy who came out of the Sea, telling me to find the Lightning Thief, the real one, not Katie, was a total weirdo." I firmly stated, but with a lax tone. Everyone looked on with confusion and then wonder. Before any of them could ask the questions i knew were on their minds, like "You knew?" and "What?", a massive thunderstrike crashed down _very_ close by. It was massive and scared people, making them scramble to their feet and scramble. People were yelling, and I stared at the sky,

"YEAH I'M ALIVE. I APPRECIATE THE EFFORT TO FIX THAT, BY THE WAY, BUT THEY DIDN'T WORK OUT. Now! I'm gonna get your Bolt back for you, because that's the kind of thing I do! So try to not kill me, just until I get it back at least." A massive bolt, thicker than the one that killed my mother, shot down from the sky in a split second, right down upon me. It would have incinerated and burned away my soul, but instantly the entire pond, not in my control, was covering my figure, shielding me. Zeus would have killed me, but my dad has my back, more so than I ever thought. Apparently he knew no constraint. I heard a light thunder off in the distance go off. More grumpy than passionately angry. The water shield fell away.

"Asshole" I softly muttered. Looks like Zeus wasn't listening anymore. I looked at the campers that weren't running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Annabeth was looking white but was still standing, Chirons eyes were bugging out, and Luke's arms, usually folded on his chest, fell loosely by his side, his eyes white with fear. I wasn't even scared, maybe adrenaline kept the fear back, or maybe the horrors of Year Eleven, or maybe even just my focus on my goal. Either way waltzed up to Chiron, the place behind my eyes buzzing, and tapped him on the soldier.

"AH! Ah oh, my boy what is it?" He was startled clearly. I looked at him in the eyes.

"I think I should go get a quest and get out of here. Don't you?" he nodded and stumbled over his words as his face began to give back into color.

"A-a The Big House, G-go upstairs and you'll find her there." he turned away and started to find the running campers.

I was at the base of the stairs of the Big House. There was a good fifteen feat from where I was at and where I thought the Oracle was. I had a general idea where she was, cause the closer I got to her the more intense the buzzing was. My head was killing me but it didn't matter. I climbed the steps.

The second I walked in, I immediately felt I had entered a threshold. There was a bunch signs pointing to that this was the Oracles place, besides the horrific mummy-corpse in focus point of the room. I shook a bit at the Oracles state. I knew something was wrong with it. There was nothing I could do right now however. I peered up close to it. It was dressed in hippie clothes, a wilted reath, and tie dye shirt. Beads, the whole nine yards. It was weird. This Oracle was a weirdo. I spoke.

"How do I find the Master Bolt and bring it back to Zeus without dying?" I asked. The Oracle didn't answer. However I felt the painful buzz behind my eyes grow. I stared into the milky white sockets of the corpse. I could feel _something_ staring straight back at me. I didn't hold my breath, but I felt like I was looking into a coiled snakes den. The pain was inflaming. The pressure came in waves, and it was getting very bad. Yet I didn't break I contact. I honestly stood there for over twenty minutes, taking the pain of Apollo, staring down into what I could have been, waiting to receive my answer. After thirty minutes, I felt as if my skull would crack.

A skull did crack, but it wasn't mine. The skull of the Oracle cracked. It was a small crack, but I _felt_ it. The sound rang through my bones. The pain hit its climax, and with it, the Oracle's corpse leaned its head back, opened it's jaws up and screamed. It's wail was almost as loud as the Hydra's was, but there was more to the scream. If I listened to it, as well as the pain behind my eyes, I could sort of hear words, and in those words, I heard a Prophecy.

'

 _You shall go west, to face the god who has turned._

 _Find what was stolen, and see it safely returned._

 _You shall be betrayed by one who calls you a friend._

 _And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end._

The screaming ended abruptly. My eyepatch was smoking. Ouch. I took a seat at the top of the stairwell, I needed a breather.

It didn't take me long to get my bearings. I readjusted my eyepatch, which was in more tatters than before. I made sure to leave everything as it was in the room, and then I walked down the stairs, walking past the god Dionysus, my first time actually seeing him in camp. I walked past his glare. He probably got scolded by our favorite King of the Gods. I feel bad but I'll offer something to him later.

I walked out the front door, and out into the crowd. Apparently one had gathered around the time of the scream. They were frantically looking for answers, with one voice I didn't recognize being the clearest.

"What was the actual hades was that scream?" If they were any more wild for answers they'd be frothing at the mouth. I couldn't very well tell that that I was a mutated prophet of Apollo, so I brushed it off.

"I think I scared her." That silenced them pretty good. I pulled the two sides of my jacket out, unwrinkling it, popped the collar, put a hand to my eyepatch, readjusted it one final time, before marching off in the nearest place to find Grover, the forest, leaving campers in silence, with quite a few with frozen expressions of horror on their faces.

 **I actually love this ending to the chapter. Pierce is now the scarriest bitch in camp.**

 **Percabeth seems a no go by yalls standards. Personally it was never the plan, but I had planned a respect based relationship alrady, and I feel it woulda been intersting to make them havea relationship. Its either Bianca or Thalia for the home stretch. Fight over that in the comments.**

 **Make sure to freaking comment please I love it.**

 **Send ideas. Ill take in pretty much any idea for moments or weapons and non slash relationships.**

 **Do you like how I made clarisse buffed? Shes the number one child of war, aswell as luke. If you cant tell, number one demigods are pretty buff with their parents main domain. Lukes fast as shit, Clarisse is strong as all hell and skilled, so much so that shes on par with percy, almost. Annabeth is also a even better planner. Percy is basically a half human reincarnation of his father. Katie is gonna have mad plant powers later on. Lets just say every main child of a god will be buffed certain way.**

 **Comment!**


	9. Chapter 9

So my todo list: Find Grover, Tell Chiron I'm Leaving With Grover, Make Sure Katie is OK, And Find The Master Bolt and Return it to Olympus. It's not the worst todo list I've ever had to complete, I've been _Apollo's_ errand boy for like, two years. I've had to fetch things, check on his stuff, and run around like a headless chicken for years, This list was relatively tame.

First off, I was going to go find Grover. Him being a satyr, and since he wasn't in the crowd, I assume he was somewhere here, in the forest. I had been here for about three minutes, before I found him by the pond, picking up litter that some of the dumb campers had left here during Capture the Flag. He hadn't noticed me approach.

"Hey Grover," Insert screech here."I just got a quest, and I want you to come." I let out a sigh as he gave me a completely dumbfounded look. He was shaking a little when he asked,

"Ba a ah, why would you want me? What about Luke or Clarisse? Or even Annabeth, she'd be g-great." He chattered out. His ears were still alert, listening to me, but he had turned his body away, picking up more litter, as if fully dismissing the idea. He really didn't understand that he was coming one way or the other, plus, he would be useful with his wildlife connections. It would be a lot easier if he just came with me.

"Grover, they would be good, but I have a deep gut feeling that they just shouldn't be on this quest, Clarisse or Luke that is. I just feel like I'd argue or annoy Annabeth too much for us to function well." I breathed in, and let out the rest. "Please Grover, you'd be useful to this quest, if you're scared, don't forget that I will protect you." I meant that. I would protect him with my life if necessary. Grover was worth it.

"Ba a ah... " He looked like he was gonna say no again, and I couldn't have that.

"This will probably look good on a Searcher's License application." His ears twitched at that. "Plus there will be lots of soda cans to eat.." Bribery is the best. It's also the best motivator.

"Ok Peirce. Fine, I'll come." He agreed after a few minutes of contemplation. This marked one thing off the list. Next thing up is Chiron.

"Thanks Goat Boy, lets go tell Chiron and get out of here." He nodded and trotted beside my jog, in the direction of camp.

Chiron was surprised by my pick, and especially since he was the only person I wanted. Annabeth was twitching her eyebrow at the news. She walked away, angry. I wasn't sure why but I was sure that I was the cause. Either way, Chiron sent Argus, the dude with lots of eyes all over his body, to drive us into town for a bus to new Jersey.

The car ride was silent, but it was filled with tension. Grover was chattering, Argus was staring at us, both of us, separately. Something was off, but I brushed it off because I didn't feel any danger. I was lightly whistling. I was used to tension. Argus pulled off the onto the side of the road, and since we saw the bus stop sign, we hopped out. Something still seemed off. I felt like someone was watching us. We waved Argus away, and he saluted us with his eyes.

We didn't sit at the bench for long, A bus came up, and we did the basic procedure, paid the driver, and went to go sit down in the back. Now, I've been on plenty of New York buses. Before and after I became a demigod. And none of the driver's eyes are glassy white, or buses completely edgy. And I think Grover could agree, because he was looking very unnerved. Regardless, things needed to be talked about now that we were out of camp.

"Grover, there are some things I haven't told anyone about me yet. I feel like it's important for you to know." He stopped looking all about looking like he's thinking that we were going to die, and focused on me. He looked at me questioningly.

"Like what Pierce, and why couldn't you tell me at camp?" These were legitimate questions. I wasn't sure why I was answering them, or even telling him in general, but I felt like it was important for him to know.

"It just wouldn't make many gods who knew happy, particularly the Lord of the Skies." His eyes widened slightly. I whisper say the next part quieter. "I became the Champion of Apollo because I am a mutated Oracle. I get visions, and do Apollo's chores." If his eyes were wide before, they were strained now. He was chattering again, silent. I sighed. I slowly lifted my hand behind my head, and smoothly pulled off my eyepatch, while holding the eye cover. Once the entire strap came off my head, I pulled the eye cover away from my Golden Eye and opened it. Grover gasped, and started hyperventilating.

"You weren't lying oh my gods." I looked directly at him with both my eyes. He look like he almost fainted.

"No Grover, I wasn't lying. I cover this eye because it's too powerful to just keep open. It forces people to tell the absolute truth, and other such things. It shows me the truth." I stated firmly, my Golden Eye putting out a puff of golden glow, showing I wasn't lying. Oh yeah, it does that sometimes. I let Grover think that over while I let my eyes adjust to working together again. I looked over to the seat next to us, which was empty before I took the eyepatch off. But I looked with it off and I saw that Annabeth was sitting there, staring straight ahead. I didn't flinch, but I had an inkling of an a Idea.

"Hey Grover, remember when I said that I wouldn't invite Annabeth because we'd fight a lot? Well that was a lie, I just think she would slow us down." He looked at me weird, like I was speaking robotically, and Annabeth was now staring directly at me in the corner of my eye. I continued.

"She's just _so_ annoying. She makes everything harder. Hard headed. She's so hard headed, that she prolly is _following_ us. She looked really upset about not being invited earlier. From what I've seen, even if she came, she wouldn't be any help." She was steaming, and Grover looked about ready to protest. She pulled out her knife, which was Celestial Bronze, and in a different style than my own knife. I felt I made a small mistake. I backtracked.

"I'm just joking, she's perfectly fine, and would have helped. The only reason I didn't invite her to join was because One, I already knew she would come, mutated Oracle, remember? Two, the less people on this quest, the faster we can travel." I said quickly. Grover looked so confused. It was almost funny, and Annabeth was also looking very confused.

"Either way, I hope we don't have more stowaways than we already do, right Annabeth?" I looked directly into her eyes. She yelped and almost dropped her knife. Grover jumped at the yelp. Then he said,

"The cap!" I don't know what he was talking about, but he seemed really sure, I looked at Annabeth and saw a baseball hat that I hadn't seen before. I stood up quickly, and yanked off her hat. Instantly, she became fully visible to Grover. I held that cap in my hands and looked at it. I looked up after a second, strait at Annabeth. She shouldn't have come. I knew this was gonna happen, but I didn't expect her to get here this way. It was disrespectful, especially to listen in on my secrets. But there was nothing I could do about it right now.

She was basically frozen in shock. I waved my hand in front of her face, but she didn't move. I felt her pulse, and it was going about 50 beats more than normal humans. I just let her sit down in my seat, and held onto her cap while Grover tried to revive her. I held on to one of the handles on the ceiling.

The bus had been going for a long time without stopping. The second I had this thought, the bus stopped. Typical. In shuffled three old ladies. I felt a horrible ominous aura just flood the bus. Grover and Annabeth both snapped to attention. The old ladies looked very close to death, like they had just walked out of their last hospital visit.

They shuffled right up to be in front of me. They were here for me.

"Perseus Jackson. Son of the Sea God. You are a strange one aren't you." Ok, they didn't have a lisp or a extended ssssss sound, so they aren't disguised monsters. This was their real shape. So they couldn't have been the Furies. So these were probably….

"The Fates." Their unified voice reverated through my bones. I've been shaken harder, but this was up there. Meeting fate was _not_ on my todo list.

"You are searching for the Master Bolt this time, yes?" The tallest one said.

"Your first whole quest before your forceful activation of The Great St-" The shortest one bonked the middle one on the head before she could continue.

"You shall find the Bolt and the Helm on Santa Monica State Beach after your visit to the underworld. Prepare." The middle one said. The other two

"Your fight never ends. Prepare for pain, loss, and the suffering of many. You will be the cause and the end for all of it. Good luck. The Fates aren't on your side." The three old ladies pulled out a string, and took massive cleavers out and snipped it.

The snip was heard perfectly in this loud New York road, with honks and and beeps. It was ringing in my head, and stopped only when the old ladies left the bus, and shuffled off down the road. Probably to harass some other poor demigod.

I looked over at Grover. He wasn't moving. Annabeth was white. I myself, was paler than normal. The bus started up again, and I took a seat near Grover and Annabeth. We were tired, freaked out, and even if I was still mad at Annabeth for following us I really couldn't care anymore. The bus went on for a few more hours before we switched buses.

Throughout the bus hopping, Annabeth told her story in segments. After the first day, we had the entire story, not that it was a long one. After she stormed off she went to her cabin because she was frustrated about not having to go on this quest. She went to her "flawless, specless bed" and found that baseball hat on her bedside. Beside it was a note from her mother, lightly glowing. In perfect handwriting, it told her that the baseball hat would make her invisible, and that I was supposed to be on the quest. She proved this by showing off the note. It was definitely from her mother. It put off similar auras to the letters I got from Apollo and Poseidon. She then snuck behind us, was in the car with us, and was on the bus. She was only just barely made it into the car, but other than that she had no trouble in sneaking up on us. Apparently being the strategy star child she was able to get away with it no issue.

She really wasn't trying to disrespect or be rude, just following orders that were convenient for her. Annoying, but manageable. It was fine.

It was the second day that everything went to hades. We Grover was napping, I was reading my book, to the surprise of Annabeth, who was just sitting there, deep in thought. It was serene. Calm almost. But then the bus flipped into a city ditch, and Annabeth landed on Grover, and I had grabbed a handle on the ceiling, allowing me to not crash and just awkwardly dangle there. Grover and Annabeth were dazed, but they were able to collect themselves in time for the animalistic scream and the Bronze horns stabbing strait through the thick steal bottom of the bus, impaling where we were previously sitting. Grover opened up the emergency exit on the roof and got himself and Annabeth out, while I went through the metallic torn bottom..

I looked around for the source of the horns, and using my highly advanced tracking skills, I looked straight ahead at the massive Celestial Bronze bull. An automaton creation of Hephaestus, apparently repurposed for murder. It looked huge. Its haunches were standing eight feet tall. And it was angry. It snorted fire, and charged straight at me. I jumped as high as I could, and bounced off its head, landing on the fallen bus. I couldn't see where the mortal driver went, but I hope he was safe. Landing on the fallen bus was better than being stabbed with thick horns, however the bull never stopped moving, and rammed into the bus again, knocking it even more off the road, flipping it fully upside down. I jumped off before being crushed between the buildings around and the 15 ton bus.

Grover was behind Annabeth, who had her knife out. I was staring at them for a few seconds, before the Bull was able to pull its horns out of the swiss cheese of the bus. It needed seconds to turn I noted. Annabeth cried out as the Bull came at me again,

"Pierce! It's back legs can only move back and forth, and its front legs range isn't much better. It would take it over ten seconds to do a full 180." Pierce? Interesting. I dodged it once again. It was a massive thing, and fast in one direction. It can't turn for anything, and it must have been maybe seven tons. I had options to defeat it. I wasn't close to water per say, but if I sprinted I could make it to a nearby river. I could try to drown it. Or try to destroy it from the inside. But I don't think it would be destroyed easily, Celestial Bronze is a lot tougher than Hydra flesh. There are cracks in the concrete from the weight of its hooves.

"Percy, you're a son of Poseidon, you can take fire a lot better than a normal human due to the sea water in your blood." I forgot about that. I called back.

"It's actually due to the strong water domain aura in me being able to take general heat for longer than a normal human, not better." I just felt like sassing. I jumped away from the Bull again.

"UGH. It doesn't matter. It breathes fire, and when it does, It has to open its mouth. It's mouth probably is the closest to its command center. Next time it opens its mouth, stab straight but into its upper jaw, it's probably thinner there than on the outside." Man she was smart. I guess this makes me the attack dog.

The Bull (roared?) at me, and charged one last time. My vision darted to the sewer. This was gonna be gross. The sewer cap exploded off, flying off into the distance, never to be seen again. The nasty water came out of it, coming at me and pooling around my legs and arm. More and more water pumped into my own personal absorption springs. There was a ton of mystery water surrounding my figure as the Bull exploded into my and I was able to stop it, regardless if I sled back fifteen feet, making me dangerously close to Annabeth and Grover. I could not let it push me farther, it could hurt them. I held strong, making a line in a sand that I wouldn't let myself cross. The Bull was going crazy with anger, and it desperately opened its mouth to blast me with fire. My chance. With my strength enhanced by the gross sewer water, I made a water sword with my knife that I pulled out of my pocket, and rammed it straight through the bottom of its head. It cracked the entire head out of the just single slice. The Bull instantly crumpled to the ground. Its steamy mouth and fiery red eyes died down, and it stopped moving completely.

"I'm going to need to scrub so much next shower I have." I really did. Sewer water did not smell good. Annabeth was holding her nose, and the still cowering Grover was dying. She looked at me and said.

"We're not going anywhere till you stop smelling like shit." She stared at me, dead in the eyes. Yeah. I can agree. Fuck.

 **Sup birches**

 **Comment pls**

 **Out of all the fights, which one was the best out of all the ones that have happened so far.**

 **I love comments**

 **Im the comment hoe.**

 **Which chapter was the best so far.**


	10. Chapter 10

We spent the rest of the cash on getting me clean. It's not like we had much left anyway, we had done a lot of bus hopping. We melted through hundreds of dollars and only got a few states away. We barely made it past New England. We tried to just wash me off in the ocean, but it would just not work. I don't know why it didn't work, but eventually we just got me some soap and put me in a public shower, which was gross but I was used to them, and after an hour of scrubbing I smelt a lot better.

Since then, we've been walking/ jogging in the forest. I could probably run for awhile, but I know that Annabeth could. Don't get me wrong, she's a demigod and fit for a twelve year old, but she isn't a runner. We'd been traveling parallel to the roads. Grover was the one with the map, and I didn't know where we were. He said that we were gonna be nearing a store soon, which was a while ago. As well, we were in the middle of nowhere, and I don't know why some store would be able to function even out here.

"Groverrrrrrrr are we there yet." I called ahead of me. I was bored. Annabeth looked at me and squinted her eyes. She turned back a head.

"Yeah it was a while ago that you said it was near." She said surprisingly. Looks like she agreed.

"Come on guys, you know "close by" is relative. But we should be there within twenty minutes. For now just entertain yourself, or just think about something else." I pouted. ADHD and boredom mixed like oil and water. Either way, I'll just try to do that.

A thought on my mind that I haven't focused on much is _why didn't I sense the bull._ My connection with Riptide gives me the ability to sense nearby threats, it's a little inconsistent and sometimes I just forget about it and don't notice it, but I don't usually miss eight feet tall seven or eight ton magic metal Bull. It should have been screaming in my brain for me to get ready to fight. Instead, we were taken by surprise and almost killed. I'm _sure_ I would have noticed it. There are three possibilities I can think of as to why I couldn't feel it.

One, it was mechanical, and thus I couldn't sense the threat since it wasn't alive. I wasn't sure that how it worked, but it was plausible since I have never come across one of these before. Two, I honestly just wasn't paying attention. Unlikely but still very possible. And three, it didn't actually want to _hurt me._ I wouldn't be able to explain that, but I felt like that one was the most likely. I don't know why but it just seemed right. It's still weird though.

I bumped into the back of Grover without paying attention. I didn't realize we were stopping I guess. I looked around, and noticed we were in a gnome garden labeled Auntie Em's. Oh. I didn't think that much time had passed.

"We're here, but it doesn't look anyone else is." Annabeth stated plainly. I could see what she meant, the place was dim and viney. There wasn't much here. I almost called out to the two of them for us to leave, but then the light in the window turned on. Instantly, I felt that there was some danger here. I heard the door jiggle, and all our heads turned toward the lithe figure in the doorway. Being in front of the sudden light made her look black against the white. That may have seemed cool but the danger sense in me was building. I continued looking at her as she descended the steps to be in the gravel with us.

"Hello children, what are you doing all the way out here?" She inquired. She was wearing thick black sunglasses. Her head was wrapped in a shawl and was wearing a light jacket. She looked like any other lady on the street.

To my green eye at least. My Golden Eye told a different story.

This woman was a monster. Looking through the mist, I could see the fangs and unnatural skin tone around her neck and up. When she opened her mouth a snake-like tongue snaked out. Her shawl was lumpy, and occasionally twitched. Grover and Annabeth probably didn't notice because of the mist. It was thick here.

"Oh, hello there ma'am. We our parents ran out of gas about a mile or two down there," Annabeth pointed down back from where we came. "And asked for us to come down and look for some food. Can you get us some food, we'll pay?" Annabeth lied casually. I sometimes forget that she was on the streets for years. The girl had skills. But apparently not enough to immediately recognize the threat. I'm sure she would have seen through it faster though if I didn't have my two strongest assets for detecting danger, my Golden Eye and my danger radar.

"Oh, why yes of course children. I'm sorry about your parents, I don't have any gas. I'll hurry up." She hurried away, gesturing to a table next to the door. I took one last look at the gnomes behind us before I headed inside behind my questmates. I pulled Annabeth and Grover aside.

"Guys, she's a monster." I said in a hushed voice. Grover's eyes widened a little before nodding fast.

"Yeah, yeah, I knew I smelt something off here, like monsters." He was more perceptive than I thought. That could be useful. As well, he seemed to be cowering less than normal.

"I think it's Medu-" I got cut off by Auntie Em's return to the room, her arms carrying as many burgers as one can carry. The smell was amazing, but the danger was stronger.

"Thank you ma'am." Annabeth pulled out the last of her money and tried to hand it over, but the monster wasn't taking it.

"It's free dear, and please, eat up here. The food will be hard to carry miles down the road." She said it matter o' factly. We tried to protest but to no avail. We ate the surprisingly delicious meal in silence, her eyes on our every move. We finished our meal quickly. I looked around, and noticed a sink in the corner. A plan instantly came to life in my head. I nodded at Annabeth to stay down. I focused on the sink, and pulled on the water.

The sink exploded to the surprise of only two people. Grover and Auntie Em. She and him both yelped.

"Sorry children, something must be wrong with the piping." She claimed, and went over to the exploded sink, protecting herself from the spewing water with only her hands. With her attention not on us, I silently slipped out of my seat, and tailed her. I activated Riptide-It still felt so good to do so, even after all this time- and in one swift motion chopped off her head. Her body exploded into golden sand, leaving nothing but her head. Her shawl was coming undone, I redid it because snakes were gross.

"It was Medusa, Grover." He just sort of stood there. Breathing heavier than before, but otherwise fine. He was really getting better at his fear of absolute danger.

"Grover, do you have a lighter? Annabeth?" I needed to start a fire. We didn't have space to carry around a severed head, especially one with snakes. Our best bet was to just sacrifice it.

Annabeth handed me a lighter from her pocket, and I went outside and grabbed a few branches from the surrounding area, and pulled the moisture from them. I got all of the paper I could find in the monsters den, and I lit that on fire, and threw it into the fire. Grover didn't like fires apparently, so he just searched inside the building for cash. Annabeth and I stayed outside and watched the fire catch to the rest of the wood. It was a very large fire compared to the sticks we were using to fuel it. I guess that's the all powerful effect of the gods. I chucked the head of Medusa into the fire, and I offered it to Athena and Apollo. The only reason I didn't send it to dad was because you know, that was his girlfriend. I don't think he'd really appreciate that. The orange glow of the fire felt nicer on my skin all of a sudden. I looked at Annabeth, and looked back. I didn't really know what to say so we just stood in awkward silence. Annabeth spoke up though.

"Chiron told me that you were alone your entire time away from camp." She didn't look away from the fire. "I remember being on the run. I started when I was seven, and I wouldn't have made it without Luke and Thalia. I can only imagine how hard it would have been, and how lonely you were." She seemed sad. I got that. It was pretty lonely, but I was busy. I told her as such.

"Apollo right?" I nodded, both him and my dad sent me all over the country doing their chores.

"And my dad." She thought about that for a while. Minutes passed in slightly more comfortable silence.

"You need more friends. You're pretty awkward." She laughed. I pouted. That was uncalled for.

"Hey.. that's not very nice Wise Girl." Her eyes widened at the nickname. She didn't address it, but I think she liked it. It spoke to her character.

"You can barely hold a conversation Percy. You need friends. And a girlfriend." I blushed a little at the last bit but otherwise didn't disagree. I was pouting when Grover came back, which was only after I controlled the water to put out the fire. We collected our stuff and stole the car in the driveway. We sped off down the road, down to the Missouri border.

 **I'm really really tired. Since this is a mini milestone, im gonna take a break from posting and recharge my batteries. Anyone who reads this please tell me which fight and which parts of the story are the best specifically. Im looking at you son of Ophion**

 **Comment pls.**

 **Sorry this chapter is so short. I have a plan for the story but I just cant get it out rn so i thought i'd stop here. Sorry dudes.**


	11. Chapter 11

Stealing a car also wasn't something on my todo list either. I really don't know much about cars, other than the very basics. All I was aware of was that It was a Chevy van. Annabeth was by far the shortest one here, but she could drive the best because she knew how and her leg joints didn't bend backwards like Grover's. She had been the one driving since Grover passed out ever since almost hitting a raccoon in the road. I had stayed up with her because I was afraid she'd pass out. We were almost to Missouri, and the Arch.

Annabeth had been chatting up about the Arch the entire time since she found out that was where we were going. Spitting facts out left in right. She loved the thing. Her interest in it was amusing, and impressive. She was passionate about architecture, that was for sure. However there are only so many facts to say, and eventually she went quite.

It's been hours since then, and it was in the very beginning of the morning. I looked at the dashboard, and then ahead. We were running out of gas, but Annabeth was falling asleep. I slowly reached over, and got her to ease off the gas. Annabeth smiled sleepily, eyes glazed.

"Luke is cute... " I smiled. I got out of the car as quietly as I could, and got to the other side of the car to open up the drivers side. I opened up the door and took off her seatbelt, and pressed down on the little lever thing that lowers the back of the chair she was sitting in. I closed the door slowly and quietly, but not before she giggled one last time and said

"So is Percy I guess.." I snorted at that. I let her go to sleep, she deserved it. That was probably her first time ever doing something like that for that long, and with ADHD that might have been either hades or just super boring. It was around Five in the morning, and I was walking out to the Arch in the wee hours of the morning to get some snacks.

The thing about staying up to make sure she stayed awake, that was only a partial truth. I avoided sleeping now a days. Sleep eventually came, but I can go for a lot longer without sleep than a normal person, mostly from practice, some from being a demigod. There was a Seven Eleven nearby, and I had some cash on me. We were low on food so I decided to go on a food run there. I jogged up to the place and went inside.

The food was cheap, and the cashier was tired. I was in and out, with small plastic bags in hand, and my pockets a little bit lighter. It was a light ten minute jog to get back to the van. I already knew that Grover would be awake, but Annabeth would most likely not be, as it had been an hour at best.

Approaching the van was no issue, as there were no monsters nearby. It was quite peaceful actually. Nothing really moving besides the wind. I peeked inside the van, and I saw Grover just sitting there chilling in the back seat. He was quiet and looking out the window, before he saw me. He slipped out the van and started started chattering about everything and nothing. I sort of listened, after putting the bags down. I honestly wasn't really much a talker, but Grover was the chattery type so I went with it. It was calming sort of. The Arch came up.

"So we're really close to The Arch, and Annabeth was really excited about it all night long. We are sort of crunching time but I think we can make a quick trip up to the top, for her." I pointed out. She really wanted to see it, and she'd be sort of crushed if we didn't. I saw Grover nodding along.

"Yeah definitely. She should she as much as she can while shes out in the world. She hasn't left camp in years." He dropped that on me. I wasn't aware of that. She definitely needed to see The Arch.

"So should we wake her now and get her to walk the entire way after an hour of sleep, or.." I mischievously let out a short chuckle. "I could carry her and let her sleep. Sure, she'd kill me, but it'd be worth it." He let out a strained chuckle at that. But he seemed to agree with the second one, she was our brains and shouldn't operate on such little sleep. I went around to the driver's seat with Grover on my heels, opened up both the main door and the sliding door, and with Grovers help slipped her on my back.

He wore my duffle bag as well as our food, and I wore everyone's favorite daughter of Athena. We walked slowly, and I did so carefully, making sure to keep her asleep.

It took an hour and a half of slow walking to get from the car to the Arch. If we jogged we could have made it in ten minutes. We barely made it to The Arch when Annabeth woke up. It's like she had a sense for these things.

Her head nestled against my neck as she woke up. She continued to try to bury her face into the back of my head before stopping abruptly. She slowly leaned back from me, and I slowly let her down. I didn't look at her, and Grover looked terrified when he looked at her. I slowly turned around to look at her. She was staring right at me. Her gaze was more vicious than most every monster I had come across, way pinker too. She was red in the face, and her fists were shaking. And I was terrified.

"Hey… Annabeth, we took you to The Arch." She looked up behind me and gasped. Her eyes widened and then she looked back at me and looked sort of murderous but then just put her hand out. Yeah, ok. I handed her the ticket fee as well to Grover, and we went inside and up the elevator after waiting in a short line. We were in the largish elevator with a lady and her dog, as well as a guard. The Lady was slowly growing in her danger levels, so I put myself between her and my friends.

When we got to the top, Annabeth marveled around at all the little details. The supports, the aesthetic, as well as the amazing view. Grover himself was looking at all the plant life he possibly could from this height. I noticed that it was all really pretty, but I couldn't focus on them as the lady and… her dog were becoming more and more dangerous. We were up there for fifteen minutes before it got too bad. I walked up to Grover.

"You need to get Annabeth out of here." I told him as quietly as possible.

"What, Pierce, what is happen-" He tried to ask, but I cut him off.

"Now, Grover, try to get the others out now." He looked sort of scared, but he wasn't cowering, and he did as I said and rushed Annabeth out as well as making a scene to the few people left in the room. The lady and her dog were unphased though. Everyone quickly filed out, and the last I saw of my friends was Annabeth's confused face in the doorway as the elevator closed. I turned to the lady.

"So, what is your name, lady?"

Turns out, the lady was a monster, Echidna. And her angry little dog, a chihuahua, was a Chimera. Mother of monsters and one of her many children. Fun. Immediately after I asked her who she was, her little dog torn through its own flesh, growing in size and its features altered, snarling, trying to attack me, but can't leave its leash yet. The lady held onto the thick chain leash casually, so she was either very strong or she has power over the monster. She smiled, which I only just barely caught because of the mass of rippling flesh jumping and snarling around.

"Calm down sonny," Sonny? I get that it's her kid but thats still a little weird. "You can have him in a minute. But hold on. Perseus Jackson." She said my name, and it reverated through the room. Monsters voices tend to do that when they say a name. Maybe because monsters, especially Echidna tier, are powerful and old. And when something powerful and old say a name, it is just sort of more powerful. Names have power after all.

"That's my name, don't wear it out, lady." Nothing really changed with my statement, but I did show that I wasn't really afraid, which made the Chimera more aggressive. Probably alpha-beta instincts. At least, I think that Chimeras have them.

"So, son of Poseidon, if you want to die, don't answer these questions." … What. Does she.. Does she want to interrogate me? She must have been sent by someone.

"Who sent you Ms. Anteater?" Her eyes flared at that. I bet she hates being called that. Prideful, that's what monsters were. She glared at me.

"... Did you steal the Bolt?" Ah. I understood now.

"Zeus." I stated firmly. Only that paranoid god would send someone to interrogate me in such a place.

"What are you hiding from us?" She continued. I don't think I'm hiding anything too bad, besides my Sight and such.

"Nothing lady. What the hades are you even after, are you an idiot or something?" I pushed it a little, sure, she has a massive angry monster on a leash and she could let it go to attack me, but she needs information, so I was pretty confident that I was safe. However, with her glare, the danger senses in my brain were blazing painfully.

Her eyes were almost glowing in anger, I don't think she cared anymore.

"Ok sonny, I think that we won't get anymore of what we want from this kid, I guess you can just have your breakfast and then we'll go ask his friends." Her threat hung in the air for a moment, just her, me, sonny, and the threat. She smiled maliciously, and it computed finally that she fully intended on murdering Annabeth and Grover after sonny finished me off. That made me angry, but I couldn't focus on my anger, as I saw her drop the chains holding back her pet monster.

I watched the chain fall in slow motion. Each link in the chain twisted to an extent in the air, gleaming in the light as they moved forward. I noticed that the once thick chains holding back the Chimera slowly turned into much smaller, standardized links. Each link was definitely mostly Celestial Bronze, but if I paid attention I could see gleams of steel. On the steam sections of each link, I noticed a barb. This chain was more than a keeper, it was a destroyer. I'd never heard of Echidna's weapon being like the Ghostrider's, but apparently in this modern world it is. I heard each individual link hitting the floor, each resonating in my ears. ADHD was weird man.

The Chimera charged at me the second chain finally hit the floor, noting it was free to attack and eat. It roared at me, mid jump. I rolled underneath of its massive form, and tried to open up its internal organs, but the Chimera was able to bounce away before it was ripped open. It twisted again, but I couldn't move to its fullest extent since we were inside. That was my advantage, I could move freely. So, I moved freely.

I stayed at the monsters deadly front, and weaved between its slashes. It was strong and fast, but clunky. Its tail was ending in a snake head, and it was definitely venomous, and probably a lot harder to dodge with it being a slithery creature. Harder to detect, unlike the massive front of the beast. I wonder if the front heads were venomous. Either way, it's five inch claws swiped at my front, and I parried with Riptide, and went for a stab with my knife. Apparently they don't have metal detectors here, and that's my lucky break.

The stab went through, but it put me within his biting range. I held back one head with a stab to the neck, sadly it was the less violent head, The Goats. I The other Chimera tried to chomp down on my shoulder, which would have taken that, my arm, and part of my head off, if I hadn't had pulled away from The Goat head and slashed across its face. A little sand peeked out but sadly it didn't burst into nothing. I needed a deeper cut, with Riptide. With its stunned Lion head I slashed across the screaming Goat head with the sword that was previously holding it back.

The screaming from The Goat Head died, and The Lion head froze in place for a brief second. I fully believe that in that moment, The Lion head was tempted to eat the remains of its goat half. In that split second, I slit the throat of The Lion head, and tried to roll away. I was caught by two of its long claws, but only slightly. The Chimera dispersed into a pile of golden sand, and as it did, Echidna screamed and charged at me. My Riptide hand was covering the wound on my side, but my knife side was free to slice her from shoulder to hip, her chain whipping past me.

I was alone in The Arch, and I only realized now that my ears were ringing, and that they were clearing. I heard sirens. I looked across the edge of the window and police cars were whizzing in this direction. There was a hole in the wall, that must have been made from the Chimera. I looked behind me. The chain was mine for the taking. I grabbed it, and lightly stabbed into the soft material around the hole. I grabbed the un barbed parts of the chain, and swung down from them onto the ground.

It cut my hands up, but the free fall was awesome, until the chain broke off near the bottom. It almost tore my arms off, but it slowed my descent down significantly. I landed in the water, right off the side of the beach. The chain fell off into the Missouri River. I prayed to my father to take the offering. I saw it float off, which shouldn't happen since it was made of almost pure metal. I walked out onto the beach, towards the Seven Eleven.

Grover and Annabeth were almost hysterical, but I was able to calm them down and explain what happened. They looked at me like I was pranking them, but I just said that I was ok, regardless of my slice wound.

They didn't like it, and Annabeth was still upset about being carried, which she made very clear with her not-so-subtle threats. There was a train station near by, or at least that is what Grover told me before walking ahead of us, muttering about all the nasty pollution.

The entire train experience wasn't new to me, but Annabeth apparently had anxiety about trains. It didn't really change anything, just that she I had to talk her into getting on and such. We got a regular train car, and unlike the bus ride, there were plenty of real people who acted normally around us. Some eyeing us for our age, but other than that, nothing.

"We'll go as far as we can for the little money we have, which is about ten hours." He looked over at us."Get some sleep Annabeth, and Percy," He looked at me directly in the eye. "Rest your side, our ambrosia levels are low." He sighed, sat down, and started munching on a can of Dr. Pepper he had stashed. I sighed, leaned into the window, and passed out into the realm of the Dream god.

 **Definitely not my best work. Im on really low stamina.**

 **Sorry bruhs, im still on break but i felt like it. Im just trying to get through this arc, cause this one is alot more boring compared to the one I have planned for the next one. I finished writing out the plot fior sea of monsters, and I think it might be satisfying.**

 **COmment PLs**

 **Guys choose the best fights and moments in general in the comments. Pls**


	12. Chapter 12

Annabeth and Grover both slept through most of the train ride. I myself got a few winks myself. I however, didn't sleep through all of it, I kept watch. However, "kept watch" mostly referred to my hazy, dull blinks around the cabin while Annabeth tossed and turned next to me in the seat. There was one point where she seemed to be having a nightmare, but then I whispered "Luke" into her ear and her body eased.

The train was safe. Little to no danger on board, and there was a moment when I looked out of the window, felt a blur of serious danger, a flash of golden fur, and then it was was almost a scare, but I didn't wake up anybody for it.

All in all, everyone got a full nights worth of rest on our train ride.

Our ride was cut short as someone who worked on the train woke us up and shuffled us out onto our apparent stop. I based my own reaction off of Grovers, which was a combination of "Yeah, this is our stop guys, don't make a scene." and "Sleeeeeeeeeep.". Which in this moment, seemed pretty appropriate. Annabeth was walking around though like she was a new girl. Not dead tired, less angry at me, the works. We were in the middle of America, halfway to our destination.

We walked through some random town that we dropped off in. Grover new what it was called, and I'm sure that Annabeth had already figured it out, but I honestly didn't care for it. I was on alert for monsters, not tourist spots. Since we got on the train early in the morning, and the train ride was 10 hours, so, the time we're at now is around sunset. The town was glowing a golden red, the sunset in the county was always very nice. Annabeth seemed to be in wonders, and Grover was seemingly relaxed. This was all broken in one big, gruff,

"Hey kids, how about you come on in here and we can have a chat." A large biker-dressed man, with sunglasses and a assault rifle bag strapped around his back. His chest was barrelled, large. His features were squat, flatish, sort of handsome, sort of not. I couldn't see his eyes, I knew if I looked into them I would see some pretty dark stuff. My danger senses were…? Around this _god,_ for I knew he was absolutely a god, a strong one, my battle senses themselves were sharper, but my danger senses were… numb. Not not flaring and blazing, but suppressed, overcome with an empty feeling. It was strangely calming and extremely nerving at the same time. My thoughts swirled into my head, making it difficult to see through my own eyes.

I was able to overcome this by sheer force of will, and then it still lingered in the back of my mind, sort of like a unwelcome customer in a shop still after closing. I was aware though that immediately Annabeth and Grover were complicit, so I followed.

The god sauntered through the doors of the diner we were passing through, with employees staring us down, they must be freaking out. The mist covered "unnatural" things, not terrifying bikers leading children into a diner at sunset. It must have looked wrong. In my hazy state, I barely noticed my friends and the god sliding into the booth. It hit me hard enough to basically wake up from my moment when I realized There was only space for me to sit on _his_ side. I looked at him for confirmation, and he didn't do anything that implied no, so I just did it.

"So, how's the quest going kiddos." This god didn't care. The entire question was rhetorical, it made me sicker than I already was with his attitude. This man was a fake.

"Slowly." I pointed out. My expression was either seething or unreadable, I wouldn't be able to tell you. I hoped for my friends sake it was unreadable.

"Ah, well then. I have the perfect offer for you then." His subtle tone made sure that we, I, at least, knew that this wasn't deniable. Annabeth's expression agreed. This was going to be an order. He continued.

"I left my shield a little ways away when I was, uh, having a nice time with my girlfriend on a particular ride on a nearby water park." He slightly stumbled over his words, but it didn't break the illusion once. Annabeth spoke up for the first time.

"Ares." Took her long enough. This man was definitely, _extremely_ strong. Of course it was The god of War, on par with the Big Three when he was in his element. Him appearing to us now did _not_ bode well. I really needed to get over this.

"You got me little girl, it's me." He said it like it was a good thing he was here.

"The grand and magnificent." I got out of my mouth. His eye twitched. Not my best idea, but I could roll with it.

"So, since we're going to go get your shield, after which can we get a ride to say, Nevada, O Lordie." The question seemed to amuse him, unlike the O Lordie, which made him unamused. He seemed to consider.

"Pretty please?" He twitched. He thought I was mocking him, which was partially true. The more I demeaned him the more I felt less like I was choking on his presence. Although… the more I felt it, the more it just felt… familiar.

"Sure, whatever. Just get my shit back soon, be careful and all that." He looked over at a waitress, and slid her some Drachmas.

"Uhh, sir, we only take American currenc-" She stopped upon seeing his gun bag and large knife in hand. Ares looked at us,

"Order." So, we did. Within five minutes, each of our food plates arrived. I got a average burger and fries. Grover got a veggie burger, and Annabeth wasn't hungry. Ares sat with us, silent for a bit, before picking at my fries, and continued started talking more, like he wanted us to like him.

"So, Nevada, aye? I could do better than that, how about California." Mid chewing of my burger, I stated,

"You sure you can handle that?" He very slightly stiffened and slid his sunglasses down, showing me his eyes for the first time. This reminded me that he was a god. His eyes were fire. The kind of fire that burns down your house, the kind that burns shrouds. War fire. Man, someone should get that trademarked. Looking into his eyes was painful, deep down. His eyes reminded me of burning. Year Eleven. Apparently this god had Ptsd powers. Great.

I finished my burger in silence. My thoughts were just a swirling mass of darkness, my wounds from Apollos quest from when I was eleven were burning. Particularly the _branding._ It burned on its place over my heart. Sort of like heartburn. I really hate ranches.

"Ares, Lord, should we go now?" Annabeth asked sort of timidly. He sighed.

"Yeah, go ahead. Be back soon." He picked on last fry from my plate, and vanished into blood red smoke. I got up from my seat, like it was poisonous. It felt like it was at least. Tainted.

I felt a large bang on my head.

"Ow, what the hades Annabeth!" I grumbled, rubbing my head.

"You are such a Seaweed Brain, Why the actual hades would you _antagonize war himself_." She huffed out, steaming. For some reason, I don't think she liked that I sassed Ares. I didn't feel like showing off that I wasn't really in control, so I laughed.

"You worry too much Annabeth. I was just lightening the mood." She didn't buy that for a second.

"You honestly think that you being betaed by a god was funny?" That was actually sort of cold. Dang. I looked away instead of facing her. By chance, I looked onward to the melting sky. It was darker than it was before we went inside, but I could still make out a hump of metal that resembled a water park ride in the sky. I turned to Grover, Mr. Direction himself, and nodded.

"Come on Annabeth, let's do the scary War god's chores." He said as pulled her away from hitting me again. She glared at me, and Grover looked on sympathetically. Great.

So, the water park was closed, and looked like it had been for a long time. Definitely godly influence allowing Ares and presumably Aphrodite to have a date here. Grover doesn't really like water, so he stayed up the top of the ride that we assessed to be the one where Ares left his shield at. Partly because this was the Tunnel of Love, partly because We could feel a presence of something at the very end.

"Annabeth, hop on." I called out to her as I climbed onto the raft. She looked at me like I was dumb.

"Uh, no thanks. You're nice and all, but I'd rather not go through the Tunnel of Love with you. Plus, it isn't even a hard task. Just go get the shield with your water powers or something." She said it like it was final.

"Buzzkill." I called out to her as I stepped back off the raft, standing on the water. Grover sort of looked at me, and Annabeth almost stumbled.

"It freaks me out that you can do that." Grover said as he was staring at me. I rolled my eyes.

"Everything freaks you at Goat Boy." He pouted at the nickname. I turned away from him, still on the water, and leaned forward at a 45 degree angle, and propelled the water to push my feet forward, surprisingly gracefully gliding across the water for the brief moments I had before entering the dark shadow of the ride.

I felt the water, the shape of how it was formed, and I moved across its turns and curves effortlessly. The water was surprisingly clean, little to no littering was a thing that happened here. It was sort of nice. I wish the rest of the water in the world was like this. My moment was calm, until a medium's worth slash of metal spiders plopped into the water where a boat would be. Then I heard another. And another. I looked through the blackness with my Golden Eye, to see everything around me as if it were bright. The water was a swirling mass of black metallic spiders. Annabeth really made the right choice not coming down here with me, regardless if it woulda been fun or not. With a closing of my hand I crushed all of the spiders. I looked around, and spotted signs of a trap.

"Camera, net, some sort of speaker, and a few hooks. Also, a shield." I muttered, counting all the things that were out of place, until I laid my eyes on the shield. It wasn't exactly a typical Greek shield, it was currently in the form of a riot shield. a huge cylindrical fiberglass shield, more roman than anything. Definitely wasn't my type, not that I was all that into shields. I was more of a "offense is the best defense" kind of guy. I'll mention that to Annabeth to put it on my tinder profile, since apparently she cares about that. I moved the water up from the stream over to the shield and grabbed it with the tendrils, and threw them into the air, were I put out my hand and it landed perfectly in it. Which would have been cool if it wasn't seven pounds and I almost dropped it.

I glided back to the group with the shield, and when they saw me they cheered quietly. We were trespassing after all.

"Did you have any trouble getting it Pierce?" Grover questioned my while we hopped the fence back to the diner. Annabeth nodded on my other side. I smirked.

"I mean nothing too bad, Annie made the right call by being a buzzkill and not coming." She started getting mad, but then ignored the horrendous nickname that she hated, but just looked puzzled.

"There were thousands and thousands of _spiders_. Mechanical, the size of tarantulas." She went white. I laughed. I was slapped. Grover sneezed. It was a sequence of events that left me in laughing tears. That was at least, until they got back to the diner and Ares was on his motorbike, chilling next to a zoo truck. My laughter died instantly. I lifted the shield in my hand, and he nodded. This time, I had time to prepare myself. His aura affected my a lot less than last time. I chucked the shield at him. I aimed for his head.

It changed mid air into a bulletproof vest, and he caught it and slipped it on over top of the one he was already wearing in a single motion. He smiled a too white smile. He patted the side of the zoo vehicle.

"This bad boy will take you all the way to Cally." He paused for a moment,

"Also, catch." He chucked a large blue backpack at us. It was labeled "Supplies", that was surprising. We didn't ask for a backpack. We looked up at him, and tapped his watch and looked at the truck. We got the message, and ran in and hopped in. He revved his motorbike and rolled up to the back. He fake smiled, and flared his aura one last time.

"Good luck. Don't fuck up." He said with finality as he closed the back and we heard him drive off. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in. Bastard.

"Let's just get comfortable." I called out. I went through the bag, nothing special in it, just regular supplies. I was trying my best to ignore the voices in my head, most of them from the equus animals in here, some from my own head. I was exhausted from holding back his aura. I laid down to rest, and for once I passed out instantly.

 _I was in a simple california ally. Nothing really strange here, but dreams are usually significant. Not that I got visions of the future in them anymore, those were now limited to daytime visions. I looked behind me, out into the street. There was a woman in front of me, between me and the street. She carried a bowl of apple jacks with a spoon in it. Demeter. I heard she loved cereal._

 _"Perseus Jackson, thank you for saving my daughter." She sounded very thankful, surprisingly, sincere. I didn't expect she cared this much._

 _"Uhh, no proplemo ms goddesso, but Katie didn't deserve it so I stepped in. Once my dad told me about her I couldn't not help her." I told her dreamily. She perked up at that._

 _"Aw, you're sweet Percy. When you drop that needless pride then you'll be a real keeper for sure. Oops, I'm sounding like Aphrodite, which isn't very good." She babbled. I always considered her a more grandmother type by her myths, but apparently she's more of a chill mom. The more you know._

 _"Good idea Lordess. I'll keep it in mind.'' She looked on at me pitying me. "Poor boy" she muttered._

 _"What was that?" My dream vision was getting hazy._

 _"Oh! Small child, let me give you this." She handed me the spoon from the bowl, and then the bowl of cereal itself._

 _"It can turn into a garden shovel, which if you ever feel like it, you can plant something with it and it'll grow better than any other plant, and it can turn into a Pitchfork for farming. However, for your purposes, consider it a Trident, and a weapon." My vision was hazy, as was my mind. I was only able to mutter one thing before I went back into nothingness._

 _"I'll try to eat more Apple Jacks." She laughed, and I was gone._

 **So one of you noticed percy was getting a little arrogant too aye? Hehe.**

 **And that the pacing and mystery were all over the place unlike before? Well, consider this off season. My plan for this saga is a lot more fluid, and thus worse in writing and creating, but filled with more ideas. I promise it'll get better, as well I hope You guys are still wondering what the heck Year Eleven was, unless you already figured it out. Tell me if you have, and I'll consider explaining it sooner since it would be redundant to wait.**

 **Please, comment.**

 **Sorry dudes it just hard to write this part of the story because I dont have a rigid idea of whats happening, atleast compared to the next saga, which will definitely be faster to write**

 **Please, please comment its the first thing i do in the morning, check the reviews, even before checking the texts from my loved once, help me with this. This is a cry for help. Bye**


	13. Chapter 13

Sleeping in an animal truck wasn't really pleasant. It smelled, it was bumpy, and the screaming in my mind weren't the best case for sleeping. I passed out within the first five minutes the first time because of my exhaustion. I slept through most of the ride, but in segments. My dreaming only occurs during the first session of my escape from the real world. Demeter was surprisingly just a thankful mom, she even gave me a spoon. That was fun to explain to Annabeth, who watched it materialize into existence in my hand while I was sleeping.

"What the hades is a spoon doing just appearing into existence Percy?" Annabeth looked like she was a mix between shock and complete non surprise, which sounds impossible but really it was just a twitching of the eyebrow.

"Uh, Demeter wants me to eat more cereal." I tried to dodge the question, but Annabeth wasn't having any of that.

"No." I have never understood so much from such a short phrase. She was going to kick my ass if I did not explain this to her. Jeez women are scary. I told her the truth, but I didn't fully mention the part about the "Losing the arrogance" or pride or whatever she said about me losing to become.. Better? I really didn't understand that myself. I didn't feel prideful, but I doubt anyone really does. I'll put it on my to do list.

"Percy this is important! A gift from a god who isn't your parent is super rare." She said this regardless of her knowledge of Apollos clothes that were on my back. PLUS my knife, which wasn't a gift from Artemis, my mother however. But, she let me keep it, and it is a Hunter's knife. So I got gifts from all over. I still appreciate the gift nonetheless. I pocketed the spoon as I told her to get some sleep as I turned back to get more shut eye myself.

Over the course of two days being in the truck, we had to hide seven different times, due to feedings and checkups. Hiding wasn't very hard at all with so many animals jumping in their cages and birds flapping their wings dramatically. We got in the back and into a empty cage, and covered it with a tarp, they never even came that far back to check on it, must be the smell repelling them. Three guys fed the animals in total, which I figured out from listening into their conversations. They were not very nice people apparently. Racists, probably animal abusers, which made Grover's and my blood boil, a lot more than Annabeth, who while was upset, wasn't a nature creature by blood and couldn't talk to the animals.

On the last visit from them, I asked Grover in a hushed tone,

"Do we bust these animals out?" He nodded immediately, brows furrowed. He was super tense, like he was ready to spring out at the truckers. He'd never looked so ready for a fight. In fact, this was the first time he'd ever looked fully confrontational. I almost had to hold him back.

"Grover, stop, relax, we will let them out once they are out of side, we don't want to assault any mortals." His metaphorical haunches lowered, and the glint in his eyes softened. I pulled him back from the edge of the cage. He let me pull him back. So, we waited. The truckers stayed back for a few more minutes, chatting about random things that we didn't listen in on. Our plan was to break out all of the animals and bolt, which was the best we could do right now.

I heard, or rather, did not hear, the truckers in the back anymore, so, the plan was put into action. I tossed Grover my silver knife sort of reluctantly, but then slashed at the locks of some of the larger animals. Those animals consisted of Zebras and Lions, who both burst through their doors as soon as the doors were unlocked. The lion looked deathly thin though, so I encouraged the Zebra to hurry it along in the equus radio that was my mind. I heard a clunk as another lock fell to the ground, and bunch of squacks from birds going straight passed me, a rainbow of flapping wings. All of a sudden, through the birds, I heard,

"Hey kids, what the hell are you doing in there?" Annabeth froze, and then the truck lurched slightly as a man tried to climb in (Jesus he was fat) and I did what I thought needed to be done.

I bonked him on the nose with my foot really hard, ran to the back and stole my knife back from Grover, Kicked open the last cage as hard as I could, breaking it, sheathed my knife, picked up Annabeth and Grover over my shoulder, and sprinted away as fast as I possibly could, jumping out of the truck in a final spray of birds. I hit the pavement hard, which sort of hurt with the extra three hundred pounds on my shoulders, but I pushed up as soon as I landed on my knee, and then we were flying down the street with Annabeth yelling and hitting my back and Grover just trying to keep his pants on.

I turned down an Alley, still running, and hopped a fence. I almost didn't clear it but i was able to kick off the wall and barely scrapes over the top. The second I landed, I let Grover down, but not Annabeth. Which was going down to well for either ends, as I was being clawed in the back and kicked in the front.

"Shut it Annabeth, I'm sorry but Grover can at least keep up." Which was true, he could keep up for a limited amount of time, and even though I was sure Annabeth was fast, she couldn't be fast enough. This didn't deter her clawing. Hades, I was about to have some Wolverine like scars on my back.

"I hate you so much Percy." She screamed at me, non genuinely, but still upset. I am going to have to beg forgiveness aren't I. I looked at Grover, who was flustered, but steady. I nodded at him, and started sprinting out of the alley, towards a large, colorful building. I glanced up as I sprinted up to it, Grover struggling to keep up. It was a casino, The Lotus Casino. _FUCK THAT._ I knew the myths of the Lotus, in and out. I had read up on them thoroughly when I came across this place last time I was here. The place would suck you in, and time would pass super slowly once inside. I never had the privilege of going inside the place, but I was almost sucked in a few years ago.

I slid to a stop, the soles of my shoes were literally smoking. I turned around, Annabeth still on my shoulders, looking for another way to go. I noticed that the bottoms of my shoes were sort of seared into the pavement. Neat. All of a sudden, Grover caught up.

"Percy, we need to hide, two of them are still chasing us, the fat one gave up." He was breathing hard, probably not used to going that fast.

"The Lotus Casino." Annabeth said. What about it?

"What-" I tried to ask, but she interrupted me.

"We can hide in there and then they won't be able to find us." She stated quickly, I let her down finally, and she tried to jog off into the casino, but I grabbed her arm.

"Are mortals really worth the risk?" I really didn't want to risk going in here. Annabeth nodded.

"Is jail time not?" Grover nodded, she had a point. I sighed.

"Fine." We ran up the steps of the casino and jumped in. It was like stepping into another world. Instantly, the front desk noticed us, and started sprouting welcomes. It was unnatural in their mannerisms, I could only assume they were possessed. My danger senses were lightly buzzing.

We were shoved with cards, and goaded away from the exit. I had to admit, the place had charm. It was expertly laid out, and the way the building was designed to attract attention to certain areas. I had to focus really hard to stay a float. It wasn't drowning like ares, but it was alluring in a since that was romanticized in my brain.

"How long are we staying." Broke the mysticism of the place. Grover voice was slightly tinged with something I couldn't really put my finger on. Annabeth's look in her eyes cleared in a way that I didn't notice she was in before.

"Uh, how about you two go get a shower, then we'll leave. You guys need it more than me. We've already been here a hour or so probably." I let out slightly hazily. "I think they told us our room was room 667." Annabeth and Grover looked a little freaked out that an hour could have gone by already, and hurried up the stairs to our room. I walked up the stairs behind their run, I didn't have anywhere to be. I called out right before they closed the door to our room,

"Annabeth gets to go first goat boy." And he faltered. In that moment Annabeth went in and Grover officially missed his chance. He spent his loss sitting on the carpet waiting. I didn't feel like waiting on a girl in the shower, so I went outside. As I did, I saw the door next to me pop open, and a fourteen year old girl walked out. She was in a towel, and was combing her hair. She looked up, and her face flushed completely. I heard her choking on her air for a second before sputtering out something.

"Uh, uh, I'm, uh.. No one is ever put on this floor, I'm sorry." She flushed and looked away. Besides her face, she was very pale. She had raven black, death black, hair. Her eyes were dark, but bright. Her face seemed to be maturing, and losing any baby fat it could have had. In other words, she was beautiful. And under clothed. I was a little red in the face. I was able to muster out a simple,

"It's ok, just, uh, um, I'll go back in my room. Sorry." I turned around and tried to walk back into my room but she called to my back. I turned back at her, and she was twisting her front slightly away from me, and with closed body language, she asked me a question.

"Um, you're new right? Well, uh I have a question." She asked timidly. I don't really know what she wanted, but if she was willing to go through the embarrassment of not being in normal clothes, it must be important.

"Shoot, uh," I didn't know her name. She shook her head."Dove. Call me Dove." Oh so were using made up names ok.

"Uh, on a scale of one to ten, how much would you say knew about Greek Mythology?" Fate or coincidences? I really don't know anymore. I answered very modestly.

"Uh," I gestured at my jacket, "9.9." It was a pretty strange question, and asking _me_ of all people seemed a little more than a coincidence. She must have been a demigod. Of course she was. She couldn't be _that_ pretty and be mortal.

"Oh my gosh, so, what are the monsters with the donkey and metal legs called again?" I answered without missing a beat.

"Empousa. They attract males and once they have them they kill them and suck their blood. Sort of like vampires." Her eyes widened, and looked back into her room. I saw a small figure laying on the bed behind her.

"Do they go after adults or..?" She seemed scared. I straightened. She saw an Empousa. There was no doubt. I looked at her in the eyes.

"Go put on some clothes Dove. We can talk about this after that." Her worried expression worsened for a second, before her face flushed once again. She looked down at her towel, and then at her bare feet. She looked at me before shutting the door quickly. My gaze lingered on the door number. _666._ Of course it was. I turned back to my own room.

"Take your time, make it last, I have a thing to do so don't make a hurry." I called back, loud enough so that even Annabeth could hear me. Grover looked confused, but just went with it I slid my bag off my shoulders, and it landed in front of me with a thud. I opened it up and reached to the very bottom. I searched around for a few seconds, before my hands landed on the handle of a small Celestial Bronze knife. I picked it up during Year Eleven. The building was collapsing, and I just grabbed it as I was running out. I slipped it in there, and I haven't taken it out since. I stared at it. Bad times came with this knife. But might be useful for the girl.

I pocketed the knife, and walked straight out of the room, with grover looking at me with confusion, he seemed to be in a habit of that.

I walked out just as Dove did. I looked at her.

"Demigod?" She nodded, regardless of her shocked expression.

"Never saw a monster before?" Nods.

"To answer your question, they take all males of all ages." I told her, remembering her questions. I continued,

"Show me where she is. We can kill her." Her face turned unreadable. I pulled out the knife. She backed a step up. I looked at her like she was dumb. I flipped the knife into the air, and caught the blade. Totally not showing off. I handed the handle to her, and ended with telling her to lead the way.

 **I like this chapter. I love United We Stand so much. Thats the best percy jackson fanfic series in my opinion. Anyways, this was an ok chapter. Thought id introduce her while we were here, REVIEW**

 **Also to the dude who said it was tartarus, good try, and THANK YOU for participating in the mystery. Keep guessing, it is pretty easy to guess. REVIEW**


	14. Chapter 14

We shuffled down the stairs, quickly, in a filed order. My slightly shorter form followed past the slightly larger form of the girl. She led the way, holding the knife as if it were scissors and running, that is to say, backwards for safety. That had to go.

"Psst, Dove, flip the knife around. It's more effective if its pointed toward enemies, and not yourself." I say this while holding my own knife the same way, just more controlled. I watched her as she fumbled to flip the knife with one hand, as one of her hands was on the railing, for safety. She managed it. I noticed as she shifted the knife in her hand, trying to find the right position, I felt a flare of danger as she settled onto a loose but firm grip. She wasn't a danger to me. That was something I could feel to my core, but she was gonna be strong.

"Keep it life that. Now, which way." I was still on a rush. The longer we were here the bigger the chance that the quest could end, but I couldn't just leave Bianca and whoever she was with with a Empousa on the loose. Bianca nodded and started briskly walking into a seemingly random direction. I followed strait on her tail, waving away approaching employees. The longer I was in the lobby the more desensitized I felt. I couldn't find the Empousa, believe me, I tried, but everything is a little rough and I was only able to feel the little flare from Dove because she was so close.

Weaving through the crowd felt like it was harder than early, like significantly more people came in. If people came in at this pace, and it had been open for so long... This place needed to be destroyed. We were plenty busy, so we couldn't do that, but we should come back here and bust down the joint. Maybe dad can tell me to do it and it can be a whole thing. I shook my head.

"This place isn't even that big, where could a little monster even be?" I was sort of getting impatient, our quest was getting farther and farther along without us. I wasn't sure if there was a deadline or not but we definitely needed to hurry up.

"What kind of person calls a Empousa a "Little" monster?" She looked at me, and I looked at her. I tilted my head to the side.

"The kind of person who fought "Big" monsters. Now, where was the last place you saw her? The lobby? Just wandering around?" I moved on to a different subject cause I don't really feel like talking about some of the big monsters. Dove started at me for a bit after I said that, not answering. I saw her eyes go to my face and stick to my cheek. Of course. I twitched my eyebrow. Her eyes widened and she tried to say sorry but I stopped her before she barely even started. She just kinda stood there awkwardly before pointing up and into a raving crowd near a small stage.

"She's in the middle, on the stage." How did I never notice a entire stage. This place was reeking with issues, and distractions. I saw the lead woman in the center of it all limping around, sort of gracefully. She clearly had mismatched legs by the way she was walking. Her shoulders swing to keep herself balanced as she moves a leg forward, and another back, it was sort of impressive. I wonder if they automatically knew how to do that or they had to learn.

"I don't understand how I could have missed that." I stated my thoughts out loud to Dove. I tilted my head.

"I don't know either, I've been here for months and I'm still finding things." _Months?_ That was going to be awful to figure out once I left. Then again… She couldn't be here on her own merits or desires. And if she was a demigod… Either way, this place was a maze.

"We aren't going to find her twice. Stay calm, and take my hand." I put my hand out for her to take, I couldn't lose her into the crowd. I pulled enough air into my lungs for a large scream, and let out a loud,

"BOMB, GO TO THE OTHERSIDE TO THE BUILDING." Now that was definitely a way to get people going. The hazy looks on peoples faces burned away into confusion and then fear. No one moved for a few seconds, before they all started screaming and running off into different directions. I felt a tug on my hand, I tightened it and walked forward toward the very confused Empousa. I pulled Dove up to walk up with me closer, with one arm reached out in front of her, like a mom holding a protective hand in front of her kid. I'm a mom now, cool.

"Only certain kinds of metal can hurt monsters, they're all supernatural besides silver. I have a silver knife, and the one I gave you is Celestial Bronze. Only use it if you have to. Now, let me go end this." With people still running away from the stage, I got into a basic stance, still holding onto Dove, and threw my knife straight into the skull of the Empousa, and she fell away into a puff of golden sand. It got up our noses.

"G,gl,achachACH CHew!" That was an interesting sneeze she just made.

"Oh yeah, they do that when they die." She glared at me with "you could have told me that before hand" eyes. I ignored it.

"I need to go soon, so listen closely. Be Careful in here, this is a supernatural place. You've never killed a monster before, and if you're lucky you won't have to. But, if you do make sure to do a little practicing with that bad boy." I gestured at the knife in her hand with hand I just used to hold onto her.

"Should.. I tell my little brother?" _Brother?_ Oh.

"Not unless you need to." Then I felt it. All the sublte agression from the Hotel came to surface, and I felt my face go sort of itchy. The danger senses started building, but only lightly. I started feeling strange feeling, and all of a sudden, everything slowed to a stop. It was abrupted.

I felt my face starting to burn, as the rest of my body. But not a painful burn, but more of a pins and needles burn. I looked at Dove's frozen face, and realized, everything was just, super slow.

The passage time was now palpable all of a sudden. I could feel it moving how it was moving outside, and the perception of everything slowed, and distorted. It was a strange feeling. I've been excluded from the Lotus. They must be trying to force me out. I felt a force pushing me away from Dove. I fought against it.

"Be careful!" I call out to her one last time before getting pulled out of reach of Dove. I grit my teeth, and fought with all my will to stay within the building. I needed something to hold me onto this, I need to get Grover and Annabeth, and get them out before they were stuck. The Casino Hotel was strong, its force was stronger than anything I'd ever physically fought.. I was sliding along the floor, and it was hard to maintain balance.

The force on my body was slowly building against my chest. The pang of time pushing down on me. I closed my eyes only to see Lotus Employee's forms shifting from man to thing. It settled on man, only for the force to strengthen and the force of time pushing on my own body. I fought on.

I uncapped Riptide, and in a flash of golden light it appeared into my hand. It almost lessened the force upon me, or maybe I just fought harder. With as much force as I could muster I forced the magic sword of the Hesperides into the floor of the Casino, and held fast. I kept my eyes open, looking forward to the Stairs, and hoping for Annabeth, hoping for Grover. No one came. I finally closed my eyes again and saw nothing this time. They would make it without me. I slipped away from Riptide, finally letting go. I started going toward the doors, being forced away, not pulled away, forced out. My vision was speckled with dark spots, like pins and needles in my brain.

I felt myself lightly knock against the spinning doors of the Casino, and I just let the other end of the door spinning around and hitting me on the back, finally pushing me out, letting me free of the Casinos influence. The blood in my head was pumping and it was definitely _not_ pleasant.

The burning in my body cooled eventually. By then, I was sort aware again, functional. I checked out how long we had been in there. Two days. My brain could barely process anything, but I knew that I spent the third day waiting on the steps, waiting on Annabeth and Grover. My mind wandered, going from Dove, to the men we were running from in the first place, to the _feeling_ of moving through time but _not._ It was belittling, and intriguing. He thought that Kronos was the only being capable of controlling time, but apparently this was just a place of power. I wonder if there were other places like it. Primal forces, like time, that could be manipulated, but only by creatures of its domain, and yet there could be places they could be abused by others. Maybe I could pursue this idea.

I was fully aware, and very hungry, by the time Annabeth and Grover got out. I didn't really pay much attention to much, I was still thinking about everything. All thoughts of primal forces were seared away from my brain with a simple, but gentle,

"Hey." Annabeth sad down next to me, and Grover looked around before settling down on the steps on my other side. I blinked a few times before realizing they were out.

"Thank the gods! You guys were in there for quite a bit I left early due to the fact that I don't think that the Lotus likes me very much. Heh." I jitter out. They looked at me like I was crazy. But I wasn't crazy, just happy that they were back.

"How long have you been out and we have not?" Annabeth look into my eyes like something was seriously wrong with me. I wonder what was so weird that made her look at me like that.

"Uh, about twenty five hours and maybe thirtyish minutes." I only knew that cause there was a huge electric clock on a billboard. I had used to to find the date when I first came out. Grovers jaw dropped.

"Uh, dude, where have you been while we were in?" What kind of question was that.

"Right here? Why?" They were looking at me incredulously. What was their deal?

"What have you been doing?" Oh.

"Just sorta, sitting here." Their expressions was blank for a moment.

"Did you sleep?"

"No."

"Anything?"

"Thinking."

"About?"

"Life, Death, Fate, Primal Forces, Strategies, me, everything."

"Strategies?"

"Ya."

This entire conversation happened in the span of a minutes, without any expression changing, I remained unblinking. Something was wrong, they were wary of me, for some reason. Their expressions were annoying me, but I'd get over it, but the quest. We needed to get back to the quest.

"Grover, how close are we to the entrance?" Grover broke the blank expression spell and fumbled around for the map. He pulled it apart to read it once, unfolding it out to a comically large size. I saw some upside down Greek symbols and letters from my vantage point against the map.

"Uhh.." Grover mumbled something out that neither of us caught.

"What was that Goat Boy?" I asked him and he cleared his throat.

"'Bout five minutes." Oh. I said as such. I dusted my pants off, and stood up, wobbling a bit before leaning back and forth, stretching my unused muscles back and forth. My quest mates stood up and I leaned down to touch my toes. I could still do it, regardless if I was a little stiff. I uncurled and stood at my full height, and looked at Grover, gesturing for him to point the way for them.

"Uhh, that way." He pointed his finger to a direction adjacent to the road. He nodded to himself, like he was assuring himself that it was the right way. I looked behind me at… Annabeth. She looked a lot shorter than usual. I was looking down on her now, which I only barely pulled off back when we first met a week-ish ago. Weird. Grover spoke up.

"Um, by the way Peirce, why is your hair longer?"

 **The next chapter will be the biggest chapter yet, and then well get the final climax, and then well get the saga easing off of. Anyone like this ending to a chapter?**

 **Sorry i haven't been updating much ive been brainstorming ideas for seperate stories and no lifeing overwatch on xbox. I hit level two hundred love me i am your god.**

 **COMMENT**

 **REVIEW**

 **Tell me about how you thought i handled it, i sure know i could have done better but its three am and Ive been writing on and off all day.**

 **Ships are sort of decided for now, so give me ideas and tell me your favorite parts and be HARSH with criticism and overdo the compliments at the same time please im an antention hoe**

 **I don't care about spelling mistakes in my author notes. bye**


	15. Chapter 15

So I was thirteen now, which was interesting. I turned twelve pretty recently, but when I turned twelve that time I didn't grow a few inches and my hair didn't fall past my nose in what to a normal person was maybe a minutes time. In all honesty it wasn't the best feeling, but it was something. I was sweatier and ichier, but otherwise nothing was too different.

Annabeth and Grover seemed to adjust way too quickly. Quicker than I did, in fact, as I tripped on my own feet on three separate occasion. My entire body took about twenty minutes to adjust to how it was now. My legs were longer, making me occasionally kick the ground in ways I didn't before and that can send me sprawling onto the floor. I figured this out on the second fall, which was also the second to last fall. The last fall only happened because I was distracted by the scenery, particularly, a flare of feeling of danger flash through me when I glanced at a certain partially covered in shadow store. Something something's, Mattress World.

Annabeth shivered as we walked past it, briefly looking into the window. The sidewalk around the building was slightly rotted away, unlike the mild sheen of the rest of the sidewalk. The windows were covered in dust, and was brownish at the edges. Grover slowed to a stop. I felt a flare, just as Grover's nose twitched visibly, while the bell of the store ringed as the door opened.a man walked out.

"Welcome to Crusty's Mattress World! Would you like a mattress?" The man, who I assumed was Crusty, gandered at us, as if looking for the person who wanted a mattress. I stepped back before he got to me, to where Crusty would have to step out into the light to see me. He stopped before letting his gaze get onto me, before locking on me and stepping out into the light.

Crusty was crusty. Just nasty in general. I don't feel like getting into details but if I hadn't seen worse I would have gagged. However, Annabeth and Grover had not. They doubled over for a brief second the second their eyes laid on Crusty's crustiness. As they looked away, I felt a flash of danger. I whipped out my spoon and my pen, and activated Riptide, with it only fully appearing once my pen was already set in a position against his neck, meaning my sword materialized against his neck without me even moving it.

"So, you caught me. I'm the Crusty of old." _Gods_ , he wasn't really a known as a dangerous creature, but he was still a bad dude from the ancient lands. He stretched people apart torturously.

"Oh, that's interesting, can I kill you now?" I dug my sword in a little bit. I needed to be dominant in this place. Crusty wasn't phased. He sighed, and snapped his fingers.

The clanking of chains and leather straps whipping through the air was made extra apparent when the wrapped around my friends and pulled them into the building, forcing them down onto contraptions in the building, keeping them from moving.

"Not unless you want me to rip them apart with my final thought. Now put your sword down." I growled. My sword didn't move for a second, before a cry from Grover made me drop it completely. It cracked down upon the ground with nasty clank. Crusty smiled a toothy smile. Well, with what little "toothy" he had. I gripped my spoon a little tighter.

Annabeth cried out as the leather and chains started tightening while Grover just groaned. If I was holding a normal spoon it would have snapped. My hand twitches, which brought attention to the spoon in my hand via Crusty. His nasty brows furrowed.

"Boy, why do you have a spoon? Explain this." A plan formed in my mind, I just needed to maneuver Crusty the right way.

"Oh, this? It's.. a gift of Nike, whoever holds it has a much higher chance at success with a task at hand." That in it of itself, was horse shit. Nike hadn't been seen in America, I wasn't even sure if she ever left the ancient lands. I really hope Crusty wasn't known for his smarts, which I wasn't sure he was.

"You… Hand it over." Gotta play this good. Crusty needed to get a hold of the spoon and then..

"No!" I told him, this needed to sell.

"Boy, give it, or your friend's spines will break." and to prove this, he made the chains go taught, as much so as it would go without permanent damage going to Annabeth, that was clear.

"Fine, just relax the chains." I handed him the spoon, spoon end first. I watched as his gnarly, shedding hand reached out and grabbed the spoon and pulled it out of my grasp. I watched him flick his wrist and the chains relaxed. I narrowed my eyes.

"A fine spoon." He mused allowed as he brought it up to his face to examine. I wasn't really sure how it fully worked, but I hope it was willpower. I sent every thought of it changing into a Trident/Pitchfork directly through every mental highway I knew of.

The spoon started shining, which made Crusty smile, not knowing of his imminent demise. The spoon sparked once and then elongated into a massive silvery shaft. The entire thing was maybe six feet long. A foot of that protruded into three prongs, two of which were currently sticking out of the places where Crusty's eyes were supposed to be, which was filling with sand. I heard a crack, and then another, and then a tear. All of a sudden, the sounds of destroyed machinery and mechanisms ripped through my ears.

The entire setup of Crusty's Mattress World crashed into stinky wreckage. A pillar of _something_ crashed between me and my friends. Whatever it was, I hopped over it and over to Annabeth and Grover to fully unlock their chains.

"That was something. Nice job Pierce." Grover said as he rubbed his wrists and hooves, where the chains had been. I slipped the spoon back into my pocket as I had pulled it back into a spoon when I hopped over the pile. I finished unlocked Annabeth, and immediately realized something was wrong. She was only barely able to pull herself up, and mostly by pushing up with her arms. She was barely moving her legs. Moving her back looked like it hurt, mostly because she avoided it at all costs as she slipped her legs off the soft bed, and tried to stand up.

She fails.

She crumples to the ground, looking like she was sweating and in a lot of pain.

"Annabeth, what's wrong, why can't you stand?" Grover looked over, hopping up from his bed.

"My legs feel so… weak. My back hurts too much." This was bad. She needed help and soon. I looked at her, and I looked at Grover.

"I can go on. You'll need me, but… You'll need to carry me." Shame fled her face as she said that. She really must care about the quest to say this kind of thing. It must hurt her pride.

"Annabeth, you need some serious hel-" Grover was cut off by Annabeth's last two sentences.

"Once the quest is done and were at Olympus, then I can get help." And, "Come on, it's only two minutes away, at least I think it is according to you." She turned away from Grover, and faced me.

"Grover, help her up onto me."

Charon was an asshole. Very nicely dressed though. We spent thirteen minutes, (Grover was counting), bargaining over a ride, because even though we had enough to pay he didn't like that we were alive. He seemed to have a prejudice against living people apparently, and was just rude in general. He called Annabeth a cripple, which was bad because she started hitting me because I was holding back.

Eventually he gave in though, and here we sat, on his boat. Grover and Annabeth sat as far away from him as possible, and refused to look in his direction. They were giving him the silent treatment, when in reality, he was probably thankful for it. He was a ghoulish character, semi transparent skin that was shriveled and gray. It clung to his skeleton , wrinkling around where his eyes would normally be. In there place could be eyes, but they were covered in deep black shadow, and were sunken in to a humanly unhealthy degree. His hands were more boney than fleshy. The way he drove the boat was methodical, smoothly. Elegant, disgusting, and bored. That was Charon summed up.

I stared at the River Styx. The.. blackish greenish whitish river was terrifying. It held so much power in this world. Even its name holds more power than any non deity's body and soul. If you were to break an oath from the Styx, you in your entirety would be burned away. If you touched the Styx you'd be burned away. There were exceptions though. Achilles, for one. He was the most famous. He was dipped in the Styx by his mother, and through the process she went through, created a nigh invincible warrior, whose only fault was his heel, and his pride. He died by arrow to his heel. Maybe he shouldn't have worn sandals that day.

I did _not_ want any of my body to fall into that river. Burning away was not on my todo list, plus, that would mean I couldn't get out of the underworld, cause I'd be dead, and I wouldn't be able to see this quest through, which would be a first. I needed to get out of the Underworld and to get to Santa Monica Beach, where according to three very scary old ladies, was wear I would find the Helm and the Bolt. Scary, but helpful.

Charon didn't speak, nor did he look around, like he was in a daze. But he wasn't, he was just very bored. He pushed us along with his oar stick thing, I wasn't sure what it was called. We were not traveling particularly fast, but I noticed we were literally a couple meters from out destination. Magic or maybe I was just not paying any amount of attention whatsoever.

The side of the boat slowly bumped the side of the… dock. It was a black gothic structure that resembled a dock, but just seemed more like a ending to a indoor pool in a medieval castle. Annabeth and Grover scurried out as fast as they could, while I just hopped out like a normal human being. I saluted him off, and he grumbled. He turned the boat off and when he thought we weren't looking saluted back to me from behind. He was an asshole but he provided a good service.

"We need to go find Hades, and figure out what happened to his Helm." Annabeth said as soon as Charon was out of earshot. Grover's hands were shaking noticeably, but in the end he just pull the backpack tighter and gripped the straps harder.

"Yep. So, where could the Lord of Darkness be hiding?" Even with all my mythical knowledge, I really didn't know much about the underworld besides the Five rivers and Tartarus. I wasn't really sure about much down here. Like, I knew he'd be in a castle or whatever, but there were like, twelve, most of them were about the same size. I looked around and its as if they just sprouted out of the ground like some sort of carrot.

"I don't know, maybe that place over there." Annabeth, from my back, bonked me on my head and pointed in the direction of something I couldn't see. There was a short wall blocking my vision, but I guess since I Annabeth was higher up than me she saw it. Grover scurried around over to the wall and hopped up and immediately saw it.

"Percy, that's gotta be it, it's a really nice castle, nicer than the others, and it has a beautiful garden." Of course Grover would notice the garden. Garden? OH, yeah. His wife.

"You two sure it isn't his wife's castle?" I mean, I couldn't see any other garden filled castle, but I assume there had to be one. I really didn't feel like trekking with Annabeth on my back for that long. Plus, we needed to hurry up with the quest.

"Well, do you really think Persephone would still have a medieval gothic castle if she could have just, like, a greenhouse?" Annabeth pointed this out to me like I was stupid. I wasn't a fan of that.

"Watch the lip before I drop you; but, you have a point." Annabeth stopped sassing for a bit after that.

It took about fifteen minutes for us to reach the building. As we got closer, Grover started coughing a bit as we got closer. The air was thickening, and it smelt like lilies and death. We approached the big doors in the entrance of the castle, after climbing over fields of dead grass and jagged rocks. The doors were three times my height, made for gods who were fifteen feet high. That was the average height of a god standing at its full height, and I bet Hades preferred to be at his own height in his own realm, a power thing maybe. I looked over at Grover. He was shaking in his boots, which wasn't as bad compared to Annabeth, who was shivering upon site of the doors.

"Welp, we're here." I stated to my two friends before promptly knocking on the doors with the massive door knockers.

"Mr. Hades! Mr. Hades! We'd like to talk to you about something important." My voice echoed in the underworld, bouncing off the walls. Grover did his signature thing, scrambled in surprise, and Annabeth flinched at my loud voice.

"Do you have to be _that_ loud?" Annabeth's words harshing graded against my ear. I really didn't do much, I just needed his attention. Annabeth was glaring at me, probably thinking I was stupid for bringing attention to us. I ignored it, but I still felt it down much neck, even when the fifteen foot door pulled itself away from its counterpart, opening without swinging on its hinges. I guess he knew we were here, and showing off his badass doors. I looked over at Grover.

"Come on." I started my march forward, attempting to go strait for the throne, which I could feel to be down the hall. It burned my minds eye as I sensed the god of the Underworld, just sitting on his throne. Annabeth stopped me though, as did Grover.

"Let me down." Oh, that might be good. We couldn't afford to just appear to have a sort of crippled-looking companion. But could she walk? I didn't make a move to let her go until she was sure.

"Can you move?"

"I-I can stand, at least. I can walk too, but if we have to, uh, escape, you'll have to carry me out again. Just let me go, it'll appear as if we are stronger than we actually are with we have three people will a fully functional ability to walk." Her gaze bounced between the floor and the awkward way we were face to face with her leaning forward and I spinning my head like an owl. She was right, and it was a alright plan. I sighed.

I lowered myself to the ground, and ungripped my hands from her thighs, letting her slide down from my back. She stepped onto the ground gingerly, a little wobbly, but firm. She was able to stand straight up, but he legs were standing inwardly, at an awkward angle. Myself and Grover sort of stood around, watching her take some practice steps.

"Look, Grover, our daughter is taking her first steps." Grover laughed, the sound echoing around in the castle, like the castle wasn't used to it. He laughed, I got hit, and Annabeth pouted. But I can't say she pouted, because then I'd get hit again.

I sighed, and motioned for Grover and Annabeth to follow me. I could feel the pathway to Hades, his aura pulsed in every open space around him. It pushes itself in every open space possible, which if I focused on, I could feel all of the hallways in the building, and I followed on of the bigger ways down into what I thought was the throne room.

The halls were dark, unlit. Not dirty, but unclean. The bricks that built up the hallway were ashlike. Rough, but cut cleanly. The hallway was sort of cramped, but beautiful. This was a servants hall. While we were down this hall, no one talked. I was focused on leading us down the path, Grover was nervous, and Annabeth was focused on not falling.

The tension built up as I turned us down the last corridor. I turned to my companions, and nodded at each of them, this was the moment we had been preparing for, for the most part. We walked down the the final hall with a sense of nervous pride. This was the force we mustered.

There was no door on the last turn, so when we stepped through, we were officially in the threshold of the Oldest son of Kronos. He sat on a iron throne, side by side with a paler throne, slightly smaller, and had a singly potted plant at its feet. We stepped into the room, and Immediately I felt eyes on me. Correction, that feeling was only intensified. I was being watched the entire time I had been down here, now that I thought about it.

His eyes were the first thing I noticed. They were red, hard. Or black, and deep. I couldn't tell. His eyes lulled me in. They were beautiful. The next thing I noticed after I was able to break away from his… eyes, was his aura. It wasn't as thick and consuming as Ares, but it was subtle. Powerful. I felt my father in him. My father would struggle in a fight against this man, this god. The intensity surprised me, or more, the lack of it, however. It really didn't feel like I was being choked, or I was going to die. More like I knew what I shouldn't do, and so I didn't. It was a strange feeling.

"How are you, lord?" I asked him casually, trying to lighten the mood.

"No. Get to what you're here for, and get out." His silky voice was forcibly grounded out. He was not a happy camper.

"Not at all, boy." He was also a mind reader.

"So are all gods, boy." Huh. Well, to the point. Did he take the Bolt? I doubt it, but I needed to know before I went anywhere.

"Of course not child. Don't accuse me of such silly things in my domain." Now, that was a good answer, because he clearly wasn't lying, or upset or offended because of my lax attitude.

"Child, I do not give a damn as to how you speak, as long as you get it over with soon. Just don't disrespect me." His authoritative voice flowed off with boredom, rolling around the room. His aura hadn't flared once yet.

"Then, if you didn't take the Bolt, why would someone take your Helm, if not for revenge?" Grover chimed in for the first time during the conversation. Now that I think about it, Annabeth was probably very confused as to what was going on, as well as Grover. He probably figured out that Hades hadn't taken the bolt. Either way, what he said struck a chord. The room tightened.

"Are you so Naive, satyr, to think that someone wouldn't take it in an attempt to take my power away from me." That wasn't a question. The answer was yes.

"Oh-h." He went silent after that, deep in thought, or just scared.

The Bolt and the Helm were both stolen, at the same time, right?

"It seems so."

So, the same person has them. But who?

"I couldn't tell you, boy. Now get out." Oh. I looked around, and saw some ghouls coming to grab us and pull us away. Annabeth wouldn't be able to be dragged, so she immediately complied, but Grover was struggling against them, he probably smelled the death on them and his brain was going off in fear. His animal instincts were probably short circuiting.

I forced myself away from the gaze of the god, and the ghouls around me, to rush over to get them away from Grover. I through off the barely skinned hands of the servants, and moved away from them as fast as I could to get to Grover to throw them off of him. They all fell away easily. Except one. One of them held onto his backpack that Ares gave us, I pulled one last time before it gave away, as did the backpack. Hades leaned forward, and watched as a rod of bronze Celestial Bronze fell, hitting the ground with a resounding note, before clattering down, ruining the harmonious sound. Also, around it, fell little ambrosia bags and Dr. Pepper cans also fell around it.

I stared at the rod. That was it. But, how did it get in there. Hades turned his look away from the rod, and onto me. He flicked his hand, and his servants dissipated.

"Care to explain?" His voice felt like silk on my ears, but it was dangerous. He knew we didn't know though, he must be reading our minds. I let out a haggard breath.

"Fucking Ares."

We explained everything we knew to the death god, and he sat on his throne listening, his face not moving but everything around him that I couldn't see was contorting. Once we were done, he asked a simple question.

"What now? What will you do?" He looked annoyed and bored again, but I knew that wasn't true. I told him what I knew.

"Santa Monica State Beach." We bring the Bolt there, and it is there we will find your Helm. The fates said so." He sneered at the names of the fates, but seemed to accepted it.

"You are aware that I will kill you if you're lying to me. So will everyone else." Yeah, I was aware, good thing for us we weren't lying. I made a weird gesture that implied we should go. The god of this realm nodded, and held out his perfectly manicured hand, each hand out.

"You have Five minutes before I let the creatures here attack you. Run, and go get my helm." _Five?_ It took maybe half an hour to get here from the Bolt? We needed to go.

" _FUCK"_ I ran, grabbed Annabeth and swung her on my back, grabbed Grover, picked him up Bridal style, and ran out of the throne room with Hades counting down on his fingers.

 **Sah dudes. I really haven't been very motivated recently, but did you like the chapter? Feedback please. Whats your fav moments and chapters.**

 **So I have a question I really need your guy's feedback on. Should I start a new story when Lightning Thief is done, taking a break for a new fanfic that I really wanna write but only have a basic concept of down, and coming back once that stories Lightning Thief is done? Or do you guys just want me to force myself to get this story ground out and then get that other story out once I have a few more sagas done?**


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